Mass Effect: Destination
by Sigyn2011
Summary: Occurs after "Subjugation". This will also continue a little past the end of ME3. I won't tell you which ending was chosen; you'll all just have to read to find out.
1. Chapter 1

Mass Effect: Destination

**A/N**-So if you've read "Subjugation", you will know that I heavily implied that Shepard was struggling with the effects of indoctrination. Bioware's EC did not leave us with that option, which would have been neat, but it's their creation. I've come to understand that as being a fellow artist, albeit an amateur one; whenever someone criticizes your work, you shouldn't always have to kowtow to his or her every whim. I think that Bioware did a commendable job of listening to their fans…just wish that TV studios would follow that same path, but they don't sell to the viewers. They care about their advertisers. Perhaps we didn't get any Miranda new content, but at least she was added to the 'flashback' scene. Anyhow, this novel picks up sort of where I left off at the end of "Subjugation". Remember, I said that I'd consider doing one after the EC was out, and here I am to fulfill that promise. If you didn't like any of the endings that Bioware made, then I am sorry. I hope that you will enjoy this story regardless of that. Now, to borrow a colloquialism from Freddie Mercury, on with the show!

Chapter One

London, U.K., Earth

Kodiak UT-47A shuttle, 1038h

The smell of grime and human perspiration permeated the shuttle. Miranda found herself pinned in between two Alliance marines. Neither of them held substantial ranks; they were just grunts. The conversations that were occurring in the shuttle were in short spurts. The CO of the 102nd marine unit was a corporal by the name of Julien Bèrnard. He was either from France or Canada and been given control of this unit just recently. Compared to Shepard, he was certainly no leader. After Miranda had been introduced to him, she could immediately tell that one day, perhaps if he survived this war, he would have the makings of being a decent one. However, he did not give much encouragement to the soldiers around him. He lacked that charisma and fire that Shepard had.

The last conversation that she and the love of her life began to play through her mind again.

"What are your hopes and dreams, Shepard, if you survive this?" she'd asked him.

"To be with you for the rest of my life. And doing whatever you'd like with you."

She lowered her eyes from his and hung her head. "There's one thing, Shepard, that…" her voice wavered. "That I can't do. I've tried to…-"

"I already know what it is, Miranda." He lifted her chin and forced her to gaze into his eyes. "And I don't think any less of you for what you _might_ not be able to do."

"But how…?" A few tears welled up within her eyes. Then reality dawned upon her. "T'Soni told you. How long have you known about this?"

"She didn't blatantly tell me this; I read over a few transcripts that she had run across that had been in the old Shadow Broker's dossiers. He had one on every single team member that was on the Normandy, along with a file on the Illusive Man, Anderson, and Commander Bailey. I've known about this for probably…oh…almost a year now," Shepard admitted. "Your file mentioned that you did try to conceive a child. But I don't care about that."

"You don't care that I tried or-"

"I mean to say that I don't think any less of you for your present condition. And that's why I worded what I originally said with the word 'might'. With all the miracles of science that are out there nowadays, I'm sure that they'd be able to fix it if that's what you want. Besides, there are many other ways to have a family should we both decide to go upon that avenue one day. I love you just the way that you are, Miranda. "

"Really?" she wiped the tears away before they could start to run down her face. "You still want me…?"

"You make me feel human, Miranda. Everyone else puts me up on a pedestal, almost like I'm some god or something," he said and made a motion over his head to demonstrate his point. "But with you, I don't _have_ to be the savior of the galaxy. I don't _have_ to give you a deeply emotional and poignant speech to get a response out of you."

After that, he'd kissed her so hard that she thought that her lips would permanently be intertwined with his. Then Shepard told her about Mordin's revelation about Cerberus personnel.

"Back on the Collector mission, Mordin told me that Cerberus operatives are all outfitted with cyanide capsules in their molars." He paused to study her for a moment. "Do you still have yours?"

She didn't answer him at first but rather looked away.

"Answer me, Miri," he ordered her in a gentle but firm tone.

"Yes," she sighed. "I still have it."

"Promise me that you'll never use it, no matter what becomes of me."

"Shepard…-" She attempted to turn away to hide the tears that had begun to fall, but he stopped her and wiped some of them away. He gave her one final nervous but gradual kiss, cupping one of her cheeks and rubbed the pads of his fingers along it.

"_Don't_ use it," was all he said afterward. "I love you, Miri."

She licked her lips and ran her fingers through his hair one final time. "I…won't." Even more bittersweet tears began to fill her eyes. "Damnit," she soughed. "Now…finish this…and find me."

With one final backward look, like a good soldier, he followed his orders and trudged up the wreckage to the FOB.

Miranda opened her eyes to snap herself out of her reverie just as the gorgeous but sagacious Samara repeated her question to her. "Did you hear me, Miranda?"

"I…I'm sorry, no, I didn't, Samara," the Aussie confessed and shook her head.

"I had asked you if you and Commander Shepard were still in a relationship. I believe that you humans call it…dating?"

"Yes, that's true, we do." She rubbed her eyes and stood up to shake the hand that Samara had extended to her from across the opposite side of the shuttle. "To answer your other question, that's also a yes."

"Is he your bond mate now?"

Miranda pondered over this metaphor in her mind for a few seconds. It had been a while since she'd lived in Nos Astra, and she'd never actually had this type of conversation with an asari before. Miranda did not make friends easily; she was reluctant to give her trust away freely, but she admired Samara deeply. They shared a few conversations over a few meals on the Normandy previously, but Samara also had kept herself at a distance. It was possibly due to the fact that she had just been forced to kill her own daughter Morinth, but Samara was a justicar after all. The role often forced her to become unattached from society altogether, and Miranda wondered if Samara was aware of the most shocking revelation that Shepard had told her about the Asari. Did she know about the Protheans' instruction, protection, and genetic intervention? Now was unfortunately not the time to ask, but since Samara ascribed to being a justicar, she would also say 'by the goddess' like many of her species.

"Yes, he is," she finally told her colleague. "I'm fortunate to have run into you again, Samara, and that you're here with me. Have you seen him since you left the Normandy?"

"Indeed. I had gone to the monastery on Lesuss in Asari space where my other two daughters lived in seclusion. Unfortunately, the Reapers came there and began to harvest them…as you know, the Ardat Yakshi are extremely powerful biotics among my people," Samara explained.

_She had two other daughters? Here I thought that I was an extremely private person_, Miranda mused.

"What happened to them? The Reapers didn't-"

"Rila was lost to the Reapers' control but did not falter. She had not been turned into one of those foul creatures quite yet, and Asari Command sent a unit of commandoes to deal with them. Shepard assisted me to rid the monastery of the horrible beasts, and I found Falere unharmed. We left Rila, who in turn, set off a detonator to several charges placed around the complex." Samara's voice remained neutral throughout the whole narrative, but Miranda knew that inside, she must have been grieving in her own way. It was that same strength that enabled her to forever strike down her other daughter.

Miranda wondered if perhaps there was more to the story but did not dare to ask because she understood how hard it must have been to do that. She in turn, was prepared to shoot her best childhood friend Niket, in order to protect Oriana. Shepard had stopped her, and he was right, she would have regretted it later on.

"Had Shepard not intervened, I would not be here with your fellow species," Samara's tone changed into a warm one finally. "I am glad that he did not allow me to fulfill my code. Should I actually survive this, I will possibly be able to go back to Lesuss and rebuild the monastery with Falere. I now owe him very deeply for that, and coming here to your home planet was the least that I could do to honor our friendship. I am relieved to see that your relationship with him has flourished and stayed healthy."

"Thanks. It's a pleasure to work with you again," Miranda stated and gave her a tight-lipped smile. "Hopefully we can kick these buggers off of our planet for good. I was sorry to hear about Thessia."

Samara's eyes met hers. "As was I, but our leaders made a grave mistake for not trusting your species or the others any sooner. Unification would have possibly saved Thessia, but the Matriarchs are not always known for their humble attitudes with the rest of the galaxy. We may seem to be the most advanced species in the Milky Way, but without the brute force of the krogan, turians, and even your own people…-"

"Might I ask you a question about your past?"

"You may."

"Did you ever consider being a leader? Did you become a justicar because of…well…-"

"I needed to assume the responsibility of my lost daughter. She killed many, and it was because of my decision to mate with another of my kind instead of-"

"That wasn't your fault, though, Samara. How could you have known? Are there actually any hard statistics on having a pure blood daughter that would be an Ardat Yakshi?" _And at least you were able to have a bloody daughter_.

Samara did not answer Miranda's challenge; she merely glanced about the shuttle at the soldiers who were trying to desperately hide their fear. Since Bèrnard was clearly not going to talk to his men, the asari decided to approach him. "Might I have a word with you, Corporal?" she inquired.

Miranda crossed her arms and planted her heels firmly onto the shuttle's floor as she witnessed this exchange.

"Yeah, what is it?" Bèrnard demanded.

Samara kept her voice low and calm as usual. "I would like to say a few words to your men before we head out onto the battlefield. Do I have your permission to do so?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "Why?"

"This area where we are headed that Major Coats showed us has the potential to give the Reaper forces an advantage with the terrain and perhaps corner us if we are not careful. It is also very likely that it will rain soon." Samara pointed to the cloudy sky that was being pictured on the holographic screen to their left. "Do you not feel that you should encourage your troops to embolden their strength?"

"What are you, some kind of Asari general or something?"

"I have served for several hundred years as a justicar, but I am also a warrior and understand how it feels to be led into a battle with an unknown enemy."

"We know _exactly_ who we're fighting," he rolled his eyes.

"Then I should perhaps be more candid with you. Have you been watching the soldiers under your command?" she lowered her voice to a whisper now.

"Fine, you wanna say something, go ahead." He did not whisper. "Think you're our fucking savior? Your own planet got mashed into nothing!"

"Show some respect, Corporal," Miranda cut into the conversation. "Samara has been fighting for centuries and has served under Commander Shepard, as have I. If there's one thing that both of us know, it's how to survive a suicide mission. And this area that your Major Coats has sent us into might as well be a bloody pot of boiling oil. Being a commander isn't easy, and it's obvious that you've got practically no experience leading a team."

Bèrnard was about to reply, but then Samara held up a gloved hand to silence him. "If you do not wish for me to say a word, then I will not," she humbly stated.

He bit his lip and swallowed his pride. "No, I'm sorry, go ahead."

"Thank you."

The shuttle started to make its final descent now, and Samara stood in the center of it so that she was facing as many of the marines as possible as well as Miranda. She cleared her throat, and all conversations that had been going in between the troops immediately ceased. "Our enemy is strong but not infallible. Take everything that you have with you into this fight, not only your well-made weapons but also your wills. If there is one thing that I have learned about your species, it is that you do not break easily. I once told Commander Shepard that there is much that humans can offer to the galaxy, and I still believe this even to this very day. Put everything that you have in your souls into this battle, my comrades, so that you will be able to stand up to everything that the Reapers throw in our path. They represent the ultimate evil that threatens not just your planet but ours and many others as well. My home has fallen, but I am here with you because I believe that we can rid ourselves of these atrocious creatures. Will you all stand with me?"

The marines all eyed one another cautiously. None of them were exactly sure of what to say to this alien. It seemed as if she were being genuine.

Miranda uncrossed her arms. "I will, Samara."

Seconds later, they gradually all nodded their heads, and smiles came across their faces. The asari nodded her head graciously and continued. "Fight for your wives or your husbands. Fight for your daughters, your sons, or your children that have yet to be born. Fight for your mothers or your fathers; we _will_ see them again. Honor your gods and those who gave their lives before you in the hopes that one day, we might all be free."

"Oorah!" one marine finally yelled. The rest of them joined in, and Samara actually smiled to encourage them all. With that, she stood next to Miranda and did not say another word. The chorus kept on going even as the shuttle touched down, and Corporal Bèrnard found his commanding voice.

"Ten-hut!"

The shouts instantly died, and the soldiers all arose to snap to attention.

"Nothing special, let's just stay frosty. These two," he pointed to Miranda and Samara," will be giving us barrier support. If you wanna keep having kids or body parts, stay with 'em at all times. And if either of you can't keep up your goddamned barriers, let me know ASAP so that we don't get into a charlie foxtrot."

"I'm sorry, I do not quite follow you," Samara honestly stated.

Miranda rolled her eyes. "He means a cluster fuck, which means a very bad situation that usually ends up with retreat or death."

"Ah, then rest assured that my barrier will not falter, Corporal."

He gave Miranda a look as if to ask if Samara were lying or pretending to give him some sort of false hope, but Miranda shook her head 'no'.

The door of the shuttle opened from the pilot's controls at Bèrnard's command, and Miranda and Samara instantaneously activated their barriers. "Just how many people can you cover in those bubbles, mes femmes?" he gruffly demanded.

"As many as you need," Miranda shot back as the shuttle finally came to land.

The two biotics jumped down onto the ground. Almost immediately, they began to be pummeled by shots being launched at them by ravagers from all sorts of directions. Miranda inwardly grimaced with the ferocity of the projectiles that hit her but did not lose her strength. "Now would be a bloody good time to get in!" she yelled behind herself with deep concentration.

"Get the hell down there, you lazy porkers!" the CO screamed.

The marines all nervously began to jump down and disperse themselves into Samara's and Miranda's protection. Bèrnard was the last to join them, and the shuttle departed from them right away. Miranda glanced over her shoulder as it left. _Bloody coward._ _I'd rather have that quarian engineer from the Normandy leading this unit. At least she knew how to take charge from Shepard. He's not even taking the lead here; I'd better ask him how he wants to proceed._

"Got a plan, or are we just going to keep getting nailed here from all sides?" Miranda groused.

"Yeah, let's go over there and take cover." He pointed to a place in the rubble that had some cover from the ravagers but not much. They still had the advantage of the higher terrain.

As the marines' gunfire spread all around her, she guided about six marines in that general direction. _Is he mad? There's no way that we can hope to survive this attack if-_

"Uh, Samara, was that your name?"

The asari's head snapped towards his. "Yes."

"Yeah, uh, Samara, you take the others and take our flank. Maybe we can even this up."

_Great. He wants to go with me? _Miranda inwardly sighed.

She felt the sting of yet another ravager blast begin to penetrate her barrier. "Care to pick up the pace? This isn't as easy as it damn well looks, you know!"

"Then you set it, and we'll follow you!" Bèrnard shot back angrily and started to fire his assault rifle at the same ravager that had been firing at her.

_Right. Just as you say._ _I hope that you can follow your own commands, then._

Miranda made eye contact with the other soldiers. "On the count of three, I'm going to drop the barrier, and we'll head for that ridge over there at ten o'clock. I can't protect us all while we're running."

"What? I didn't get that!" the CO came back and stopped firing his gun.

She hated repeating herself, and this incompetent fool was getting on her nerves. She had enough of him. "One…two…three!" she thundered and let go of her protective field. The rest of the unit took off with her.

"What the hell? I said to-"

Bèrnard never got a chance to finish his sentence as yet another few powerful shots from a ravager hit him squarely in the chest.

Miranda tossed a perfunctory look over her shoulder as his body slumped to the ground with a soft thud into the earth. _Belligerent ass_; _he should've listened to me the first time._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

London, U.K., Earth

Leicester Square, 1104h

When she was in her early twenties, Miranda remembered how vibrant and vivacious this place once was. She had done some of her training here with her mentor Charon, who had taught her how to become the most shrewd and brilliant agent that the Illusive Man had ever possessed. The neighborhood was just full of night clubs, pubs, and restaurants.

It was at an establishment called 'The Penthouse' where she had performed her first seduction for Cerberus, with a member of Parliament, who belonged to the House of Commons. The persuasion was the easy part-Miranda could have practically any man that she wanted. The hard part was keeping his affections; she had to keep the tryst up for at least two weeks while Cerberus set him up to take a fall. Their intent was to replace him completely with someone else who was less sympathetic to aliens. After the _Daily Mail_ and various other forms of media ran their scandalous story of the man who left his wife and three girls for another woman, his political career came to an immediate halt.

Now she could hardly recognize the place because it was so torn up.

"Oh shit, what do we do?" one of the Alliance grunts that had been accompanying her complained as he noticed that their commanding officer had just been shot down.

"Get down! Or would you rather join him?" Miranda commanded.

The grunt complied and joined the rest of the group. "Our CO is dead? What the hell can we-" another began to ask.

Miranda waved her hand dismissively at the two panicking soldiers. "Enough. I had warned everyone that we were going to move. Bèrnard either didn't hear me or didn't care to listen. Save your clips and bunker down here for now. I'm going to try and see if I can get in touch with anyone in Alliance Command from the FOB."

No one dared to disobey her; they could see that she was a natural leader. The unfortunate thing was that she chose to lead by force, which sometimes did not work. However, these soldiers were all scared, and having someone who showed practically no fear while striking it into their hearts at the same time was precisely what they all needed right now.

_I wish Shepard were here_, she told herself with a sigh.

Miranda touched her fingers to the skin just beneath her ear. "Hello? This is the 102nd marine division, fourth regiment. Our CO was Corporal Julien Bèrnard, and he's been killed. Does anyone read me?"

There was no response. Miranda repeated her actions five more times in the next two minutes, but again, she received no word from Major Coats, Anderson, or anyone else that had command of the Alliance FOB.

"Damnit," Miranda said and bit her lip.

One soldier who remained quiet during their previous exchange slightly raised his hand. "Excuse me, ma'am? What do you want us to do?"

"We're dead if we stay here in this spot without help; we'd better regroup with the others. I'll radio Samara and ask them to meet us over here, since the Reaper forces now seem to be converging on us." The former Cerberus operative contacted her asari counterpart, and Samara stated that they would make a rendezvous with her group ASAP. Miranda would just need to hold out for another few minutes.

"All right, this is what we're going to do. Are any of you carrying modded thermal clips?" They nodded. "Incendiary or warp slugs would be the best to use against these armored rachni troops. When I say the word, I'm going to activate my barrier. All of you had better get in as fast as you can, and then I'll get us into an open area so that we can take out these bastards. Understood?"

"Rah!" the five other grunts shouted in unison.

_I'll take that as an affirmative_. _Bloody marine slang._

Miranda took a deep breath to gather her concentration and imagined this was the only way to get to Shepard. She despised being separated from him in this final push against the Reapers. Using that anger, she charged up her implant and stepped away from a wall. "Everyone in now!"

The men under her command obeyed her instantly and double checked that their rifles were modified properly before firing. Two troopers flanked her, two covered her back, and one was in front. One of the ravagers finally went down, but there was another that had previously been next to it that decided to scoot away and try to surprise them from behind. "On our six!" one of them screamed as the rachni abomination began to blast mercilessly at them.

The four shots nailed Miranda's barrier right away, and she whirled around to face it so that she could concentrate further. Sweat started to bead on her forehead.

"Shoot the goddamned thing!" she yelled at them. "My barrier's gonna start to collapse if it gets any more direct hits at me!"

The soldiers let forth a barrage of rounds. Eventually, the barrier that protected the ravager broke, but it wasn't enough. "More, damnit!"

"I've only got so many rounds in a clip, bitch!" one of them screamed back at her.

"Your life is mine," a deep voice called from behind Miranda.

The human biotic's head whirled around as she witnessed Samara send out a mighty violet field that was called 'reave'. It functioned similarly to 'warp' but also allowed the person who wielded it to seize his or her target's life or energy as well.

The spatial distortion field hit its mark perfectly and caused the ravager to momentarily stop firing its twin cannons. Unfortunately, this caused their enemy to release some tiny rachni workers from its inner sac. Moments later, the soldiers that followed Samara expunged them all.

They now had a moment to pause, and Miranda released her barrier. She leaned herself against a wall to catch her breath and nodded her thanks to the asari. "We should move quickly to higher ground. I fear that they may be sending even more to this place. And the weather is proving to look quite ominous," Samara told her and signaled the Aussie's attention to the sky.

The clouds were now completely filled with a noir saturation as if they would just burst with rain at any moment. "Agreed. We're a bit too exposed out here," Miranda said and nodded.

One of the marines that did not wear a helmet but rather a red beret stepped out from among his colleagues. "Just where the hell is Bèrnard?" he questioned her. "Why should we trust you?"

"He's dead, and if you think that you can lead the team any better, than by all means, go ahead." Miranda's tone was bitter and harsh, but she did not raise the volume of her voice.

The irritated marine's eyes narrowed. "Maybe I will. You're not even in the Alliance."

Thunder raged above them, and several branched fingers of lightning followed soon after it. The marines all glanced at one another, all unsure of which party's side they should each take. "That shouldn't matter to you at this point." She blew out an impatient sigh from a set of clenched teeth. "Look, you can all argue about this later. Right now, I suggest we get moving before we get buggered _and_ soaking wet."

Samara touched the resisting private's shoulder to encourage him, and eventually, the rest of the squad followed Miranda at a jogging pace as she led them through Leicester Square back towards the London Coliseum in the opposite direction.

When they finally found a building that had an overhang that stretched on for almost a whole block, Miranda halted the company. "Let's catch our breath here. Samara, I need to speak with you." The soldiers stopped and clumped together to either refill their weapons or pull out something to drink or smoke from their pouches. Before Samara left to speak with Miranda, one of the marines gave her his canteen of water.

"Thank you, you're very kind," the asari told him and took a drink. She was about to hand it back to him, but then he shook his head and pointed to Miranda, who was waiting for her about ten feet away.

"I'm sure she's thirsty, too. Don't you biotics have to eat like twice as much food and drink more than normal?"

"Perhaps humans do, but the Asari regularly consume food and drink with element zero in it. We do not need twice as much food for that reason, unless we are living away from our planet or cannot get the eezo in our diet."

"Huh. Learn something new every day," the grunt replied with a casual shrug and went to join his comrades in arms.

Samara finally rendezvoused with Miranda and proffered her the canteen, which Miranda graciously accepted. "Maybe this is a peace offering," she mused after she drank quite a bit of it.

"What do you need to speak with me about, Miranda?"

"Perhaps it'd be best if you led the company now. I don't see how on earth I'll ever get their respect, and besides, you made that eloquent speech just right before we landed. I think that this," she held up the canteen, "proves my point. None of them gave me a drink of water."

"Actually, the man who gave me this wanted you to have it as well. You are making more of an impact than you thought."

Miranda shrugged and put the thermos down onto the pavement. "The sky looks horrible, doesn't it? It's like we're stuck in a bloody nightmare."

"This will end, Miranda. I know Shepard and the others will make it to the conduit," Samara's gentle voice soothed her. "There is no doubt in my mind that justice will prevail today, and that we'll be rid of these monstrosities forevermore."

"After living the kind of life that you did…I just don't understand." Miranda brushed away a stray lock of hair that had blown into her face. "You had to kill one of your own daughters and just lost another to the Reapers. How can you go with any hope at all?"

"Because I believe in Shepard and the goddess Athame. She will protect him."

_Well, that answers one of the questions that I had going through my mind much earlier_, Miranda thought.

"Have you…" Miranda chose her words as tactfully as she could here. "Have you spoken with Shepard about the fall of Thessia?"

"No, we have not. Why?"

"Oh, well then maybe it's best that we talk about something else."

Samara wisely studied her interlocutor with her tranquil eyes for a few moments. "You know something that I do not about the fall of Thessia."

"Yes, but-"

"If it is something that will impact our current mission, I would like to know about it. If it is not, then do not speak of it, please."

Miranda nodded. "No, it doesn't. If Shepard didn't talk about his mission with you, then I won't either." _If she draws her strength from believing in a false god, then so be it._

"Thank you. Now, about the impending weather here…are you familiar with the field of meteorology?"

"Not too much, I'm afraid. The satellites have likely all been destroyed by the Reapers." Miranda activated her omni-tool and tried to connect to the extranet, but it was no use.

"One does not need a satellite to track cloud movement." Samara glanced upward. "These rain clouds will likely pour forth their precipitation for fifteen minutes or so. I cannot properly judge how much will fall, but…" She removed one of her gloves, moistened a finger in her mouth, and held it up to the wind. "I believe that the wind is moving south at a moderate pace."

"So the storm won't be too long here."

Seconds later, the clouds burst forth, and the rain began to drench the earth.

"Damnit," Miranda exclaimed and bit her lip. She bent over, retrieved the canteen, and traveled back to the marines. "Looks like we're stuck here for the moment."

"Why? We can move in rain," the one with the red beret spoke up again.

"Yes, but Samara and I won't be able to utilize our biotics to protect you." The Aussie held up the canteen. "To whom does this belong?"

One soldier raised his hand. He had eyes the same color as Shepard's, but he wasn't nearly as handsome. She gave it back to him. "Thank you. Now, we'd better decide here who's going to lead our company if we want to all get out of this alive."

"The Alliance isn't a democracy, ma'am. If you or the asari wanna take charge here, none of us will have a problem following you," he told Miranda.

"Really? A few minutes ago, that didn't seem to be the case," Miranda stated and raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps we should put this to a vote."

"Miranda, I trust your leadership," Samara cut in. "I'd rather _you_ lead us."

The ex-Cerberus operative's eyes swept carefully through the squad. None of them gave her any sort of negative body language. "My background isn't exactly military, but understand this. I expect everyone's complete cooperation from now on. If you don't agree with an order that's been given, deal with it, because insubordination will not be tolerated. I don't have the patience for incompetence or bravado, so if you do something foolish or don't listen, it's your funeral. Are we all in agreement here?"

All of the team members gradually gave her nods.

"Good. When the rain stops, and I've been told that it will in the next ten minutes or so, then we'll move out carefully. Samara and I will construct barriers when we encounter a lot of Reaper troops or come upon some heavy gunfire, such as from one of those harvesters or ravagers. Otherwise, keep yourselves in a threesome formation as we move out. Since it doesn't waste rounds, keep your munitions modded. We'll probably run into more rachni troops." _God-willing, there'll be no banshees. Shepard and I almost got torn to pieces by one of those_.

"And what if one of us doesn't hear you when you drop your barriers, ma'am?" the one with the red beret asked.

"Both of us will say it over the radio as well, then," Miranda coolly responded. She withdrew her submachine gun from her weapon belt and began to check it while Samara also removed her assault rifle from her gun rack to do the same thing.

The same marine who had given his canteen to Samara approached her. "Excuse me, ma'am, but would you like to use my rifle? I can just use a pistol that's already got modded thermal clips. I know that it's just a plain avenger model and isn't nearly as accurate as yours, but…well…-" He scratched his head nervously.

"Tell me what your name is," Samara said.

"Well, it doesn't really matter, does it? I mean…-"

"If your name meant nothing to me, I would not have asked for it. You were kind enough to give me some water before, so I would like to know what I should call you."

There was a light but sweet twang to his voice; it was an accent that Samara was not familiar with, especially since this was her first visit to Earth. Asari also had different inflections to their voices, but they did not vary nearly as much as human dialects.

"Johnny Lee, ma'am, private second class." He gave her a salute; she did not return it but merely nodded.

"I am Samara, a servant of the Justicar Code."

"Yeah, you mentioned that before." Lee motioned to her with his rifle. "What's a justicar?"

"The human concept would be equivalent to a knight as well as…perhaps a samurai. I serve a Code that rules my life; there are five thousand sutras, and I have memorized each one."

"Damn. So that other lady wasn't kidding when she said that you were a warrior." He paused to kick a stray piece of rubble away from them. "So did you want this rifle, Samara?"

"That is kind of you to offer, but I will not need it. I prefer more accuracy to modified munitions." She shook her head 'no'.

"Okay, then, well, uh…ugh, damn this thing!" Lee exclaimed, let his rifle drop onto the pavement, and then took off his helmet. His hair was cut to the popular 'high and tight' style that so many marines wore, and he viciously scratched at the back of his head. "I just got it cut two days ago, and it's making me itch like nuts!"

Samara's head tilted to the side as she observed this strange behavior; she had never witnessed Shepard do this before nor any of the other humans on the Normandy. Her eyes swept over the rest of the marines and noticed some of them slapping a colleague's completely shaved head. "Lee, I do not mean to pry, but, what are your fellow companions doing?"

"Slapping his head for good luck. You haven't been to Earth before, have you?"

"Yes, this is my first time. I must admit that I have not had the pleasure of working with anyone in the Alliance before. The Asari do not slap one another on the head for good fortune."

"London used to be a pretty grand place." The rain started to lighten a little. "So what do the Asari do to jack themselves up before running into the fire?"

"I am afraid that I do not understand what you are saying…what does the expression 'jack up' mean?"

"How do they psych themselves up, you know? Get their minds focused?"

"Ah," Samara nodded with understanding. "Each circumstance is different. I have never served as a commando myself, but before my colleagues and I went into battle, we would pray to the Goddess Athame for strength."

"So how about any of that mind melding stuff? I've heard some of your people say the words 'embrace eternity' to one another," Lee shrugged his shoulders.

"I did not share that close of a bond to any of my ship mates. I…have not thought about doing so…for a long time now. Perhaps there is one person that I would share the bond with, but he is very far away now…" Samara fell silent and became lost in her thoughts.

Lee picked up his helmet and put it back over his head. "How much longer do you figure that the rain's gonna keep falling?"

The asari glanced up to the sky. "I would estimate that it will not last for another five minutes."

Miranda had been watching this whole exchange but kept her distance. _I wonder where she learned to do that. Do the Asari teach their young to be able to predict meteorology like this?_

True to Samara's predictions, five minutes later, the rain stopped. The marines all got to their feet and lined themselves up without waiting for Miranda's command. Samara fell in with them, and Miranda shook her head 'no'. "Samara, I'd rather that you stay up front with me, just in case we need to erect those barriers again."

"As you wish," the asari answered her noncommittally and obeyed her.

Miranda led the Alliance soldiers and Samara at a brisk walking pace down Charing Cross road. The Coliseum was still mostly intact due to its solid structure; however, several edifices around the area were nothing but smoldering ruins now. A large crater now replaced what was the St. Martins Lane Hotel; only the sign remained visible.

Seconds later, a patrol of two harvesters swooped in and dropped off some Reaper troops. "Take cover!" Miranda bellowed and immediately ducked underneath one of London's more famous landmarks, which happened to be an overturned red telephone booth that had landed atop a pile of rubble that was two feet high.

Two marines flanked her and immediately began to fire at the cannibals that accompanied a marauder. "Don't waste your bullets. Can't you see that they're drawing their power from him?" she snarled at them and prepared her omni-tool to overload the creature's shields. "Just let me get this EMP charge at him, then you can hit them with everything you've got."

Samara watched Miranda's actions; she knew what the sentinel was going to do as when she saw Miranda's omni-tool glow. "Leave the turian to me, Miranda."

"Got it," the Aussie swiftly replied. She waited until the cannibals went to reload their weapons, then arose, hit the marauder, and Samara extended her hand calmly towards it.

"Embrace eternity." Another reave hit the former turian squarely in the chest, and the troops unloaded multiple shots into it.

Miranda smirked to herself; now_ this_ was real teamwork. Her keen eyes observed a cannibal preparing to launch a frag grenade at the soldiers standing near Samara. "On your right, two o'clock!" she yelled.

The asari biotically threw them all back, not only the one with the grenade, but the ones that had begun to edge their way forwards towards them as well. The grenade landed a few feet away from the cannibals and quickly ended their suffering.

The pair of harvesters that had originally made their drop now came back around and fired several powerful shots from their mouths at the unit. "Barriers up _now_!" Miranda screamed.

Without another second to lose, both she and Samara threw up their barriers. The marines all rolled inside their protection and began to shoot their weapons at the terrible flying beasts. Unfortunately, there was not a huge amount of cover, and it looked as if they'd have to possibly run away to survive this. Samara was indeed an extremely mighty biotic, but Miranda knew that her barrier could not compare to her asari counterpart's. Each blast that hit her now made her grimace.

_Remember whom you're fighting to see again. Use that._

Something that Shepard told her a while ago, long before they had grown serious about one another; it helped her keep up that hard concentration. "You once told me that you see a fire in me, Miranda. But I see dedication burning in you. The courage you had to leave your father stuns me like a biotic charge. And I know now that no other woman in the galaxy can ever make me feel the way you do," he said.

Miranda winced as yet another projectile hit her and groaned. "I can't…hurry, please!" she whimpered to the men near her.

The gunfire remained the same, but at least both of the harvesters' armor finally dropped to half strength now.

She panted now as she felt sweat trickle down the back of her neck now; her long chestnut hair began to cling to it and bother her. "Can't…hold…on…much longer!"

Samara's head turned instantly, and she widened her field. "Rest, Miranda. I will protect everyone."

The Aussie nodded without another word, released her barrier, and the nearest grunt near her, which happened to be Johnny Lee, caught her with one arm before she could fall onto the ground in complete exhaustion. He tossed down his assault rifle onto the ground and dragged her over behind the fallen red telephone booth. "Shepard…" she murmured nearly deliriously with her eyes closed.

At first, Lee was incredulous when he heard this. Was she talking about _the_ Commander Shepard? Did she actually know the best soldier in the Alliance? The living legend who became the first human spectre?

"God, Shepard…" she sighed again and tried to sit up but couldn't.

Lee took out the canteen from his pouch. Thankfully, he had been smart enough to let the rain fall into it and glanced inside. There was about half left. Maybe they would run into some corpses along the way, and he could steal more. He shoved his selfish thoughts away, knelt down beside her, and propped her up against his knee to give her the water that she so desperately needed. "It's okay, ma'am. Just drink this, and you'll be all right," he reassured her.

Her eyes opened after she finished quenching her thirst, and she gave him a grateful glance. "Thank you, Lee, was it?" She handed the flask back to him.

"Yes, ma'am." He tore his eyes away from her and looked at two of his fellow marines, who just accidentally stepped outside Samara's barrier to reload and got hit by the twin harvesters. "Shit. Look, uh, just hold onto this for me." Lee left her the canteen, rolled away, and joined the rest of his brothers-in-arms.

Miranda found her balance now but decided to wait a minute before rejoining the battle. After all, she had just nearly collapsed onto the ground. She took in a few very deep breaths to steady herself and then released them soon afterward. _I'll find him here…I've got to keep going for the both of us._

"Keep firing! They're nearly dead!" Samara shouted and snapped Miranda out of her train of thought.

The human biotic whipped out her submachine gun, charged up her implant, and protruded left arm towards the abominations with a warp field. "Now let's finish you off!" she cried. Finding her strength boldly renewed, Miranda let loose a spray of slugs into the hovering beasts.

The Alliance soldiers yelled out shouts of joy. Eventually, the two gruesome reptilian-like animals fell from the sky to the ground. "Clear the blast zone!" Miranda enthused. No one dared go any closer; the twin harvesters let a double explosion as they both died.

"Oorah!" They raised their arms up and cheered heavily.

Miranda noticed the fallen marines and activated her omni-tool to take their vital signs, but it was no good. Both men had lost too much blood. She looked about the unit. Now there were only eight left, not including her and Samara. Coats had not given them a rendezvous point at the meeting that happened a few hours ago. It would be a wise idea to meet up with another battalion if possible.

Lee confiscated the thermal clips left over from the two dead soldiers as well as both of their bottles to inspect their remains. She approached him. "I'm not sure if my radio connection has gone down or not. I need you to open up yours and try to get in touch with Major Coats or even Admiral Anderson, if you can."

"Yes, ma'am. Do you want to speak to either of them if I do end up getting a hold of either one?"

"We'll see. Just do what I ask…please," Miranda ordered him.

The private handed her two thermal clips and obeyed her. After securing them to her weapon belt, she began to pace the cement, and anxiously waited for the results of his conversation. Two more marines not five feet away from her lit up cigarettes, and one of them offered her one. Miranda shook her head 'no', and he shrugged. "If you're gonna die today, why not?" he asked.

"I don't intend on dying here," she shot back coldly. _Not today. Not without Shepard._ The ex-Cerberus operative stopped pacing and stood directly in front of Lee. "Status report, Private."

"Admiral Anderson, Commander Shepard, and the rest of the 103rd marine division are headed towards the conduit right now," Lee told her. "Some of the Sovereign class ships have broken away from the Crucible to come down here. Damn, out gunships sound like they're dropping like flies. Hackett just ordered Sword to protect the Crucible, and he-"

"Can you get in touch with any of the COs in the 103rd division?" Miranda interrupted him.

"Well, I already tried that-"

"Try it _again_." Her voice became slightly impatient but did not become nasty.

"To be honest, ma'am, I'm not sure how to-"

She held up a hand. "Just tell me the frequency that they're on, and I'll bloody well do it myself." _You've apparently not well versed in communications. So much for any proper Alliance training. They must literally just be shoving a gun into these men and women's hands and slapping armor onto them._

Suddenly, before Miranda could utter another word or try to contact anyone, another pair of harvesters dropped off about two dozen Reapers troops. She sighed to herself and bit her lip. "Damnit, let's get the hell out of here. This square is a bloody death trap!" she shouted.

"Ma'am, might I ask where we're going to-" Lee started but never got a chance to finish.

"Move out! If we don't meet up with another unit, we're as good as dead," Miranda barked back. That command sent the rest of the marines into action, and the whole troupe followed her and Samara down the street towards Covent Garden.

*A/N*-So if you're not a big Samara fan, sorry. She was a big favorite of mine in ME2; her story was so deliciously tragic, as was the continuation in ME3. I think she's one of the more humble Asari besides Liara, and I didn't have Miranda tell her about the Protheans because that would have demoralized her. Could the two of them have been friends? It's hard to say because Samara distances herself from everyone. Both she and Miranda share some values, but naturally, she is morally superior to Miranda. Remember that fight that she and Nihlus had? That's what made her stop pursuing him.

Anyhow, I would highly recommend reading some of my other stories for background, if you want to understand how my interpretation of Miranda works here. The first was "Vindication", the next "Complication", and finally, "Subjugation". The other works aren't nearly as important, but if you like vignettes, read "Citadel Incidentals". It takes place before Miranda and Shepard go to Cronos Station. "Cultivation" does include Miranda and Shepard, but this happens even before the events of "Mass Effect". So keep in mind if you didn't like Miranda before her loyalty mission in ME2, that's exactly how I portrayed her in "Cultivation". It also explains why Shepard behaved the way he did in "Vindication". That's not an excuse but rather a reason.

Thirdly, here's a shameless plug for my original novel called "The Edge of Obliteration". It will be available on Trafford's website on the 26th of this month via paperback on demand. Also, it will be available on e-book for those of you who want to jump wholeheartedly into the 22nd century on Barnes and Noble as well as Amazon at the price of $3.99. The nom de plume is "Sigyn Piwonka". We are not permitted to publish original work here, so unfortunately, you cannot get a preview of the novel on this website. However, Trafford will publish a free excerpt as well as Barnes and Noble and Amazon. If you like my Mass Effect novels and enjoyed watching the movie "The Bourne Identity", then it's possible that you'll like this book as well.

Lastly, sorry for these very long notes, but thank you to everyone who leaves behind reviews to me. I do value them very much, and they help me to write quickly


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

London, U.K.

King Street, 1149h

The marines, Samara, and Miranda all made good time as they traveled down this street. Miranda's mind now also wandered towards her sister Oriana's welfare, who had been delegated to go help the SSV Benjamin Davis' communication specialist Shingen Uesugi. Shepard had told her that the ship was under Hackett's command, but that still did not assuage her anxieties.

"Ma'am, there's a downed shuttle at ten o'clock!" One of them broke her train of worried thoughts with his announcement.

Her eyes went to her left, and she halted in her tracks about two seconds later as she spotted the craft. "Right. Can any of you pilot a shuttle?"

The majority of them shook their heads 'no', and Miranda was about to give up hope until Samara spoke up. "I can, Miranda, although it might take me a little while to understand how human technology differs from the Asari's. I cannot guarantee that the shuttle will fly either, until I've taken a further look at it."

"That's fine-looks like it's only about fifty meters from here. Move out," Miranda ordered them all.

About a minute later, they all arrived at the shuttle, and Samara immediately entered the vehicle. "The controls appear to be functional, Miranda," the asari told Miranda through her earpiece. "Please give me some time to-"

"Done. But be quick about it, we're about to take on a huge amount of husks here," she replied tersely and withdrew the submachine gun from her weapon belt again.

Abominations that had once been humans, possibly a wife, husband, brother, sister, father, or mother now rushed towards them all. Roughly two dozen creatures screamed, but Miranda calmly stood her ground to fire her weapon at them. No longer would they feel pain as the slugs made their impacts, nor would any of them be slaves to the treacherous creatures that rained down terror in the skies above them.

She remembered briefly when EDI explained to her, Samara, and Shepard just before their battle with the human Reaper the fact that Reapers were both organic and inorganic constructs. If indeed this abomination had actually been created, would millions of humans be speaking at once? How would they not be conflicted with decisions? What would the Reaper call itself? Sovereign was indeed a name fabricated by Saren for the Reaper; Shepard later told her that Legion shared the fact that that Reaper called itself "Nazara".

Miranda snapped herself out of her wandering mind back to the matter at hand. "How much longer do you need, Samara?" _Damnit, I'm out!_

The sentinel lowered her weapon briefly, charged up her implant, and threw two husks away from another marine while he was reloading. "Here." She shoved her gun into his hands. "Another clip. _Now_."

"Aye, aye," he replied and did as told.

"Another minute, please. I believe that I have mastered the propulsion and navigational controls, but the weapons are another matter," the asari responded neutrally.

"Damn the weapons! We need to get out of here, now!" Miranda shot back.

"And what if the situation arises when we need to defend ourselves against one of those winged creatures?"

The Aussie impatiently rolled her eyes and inwardly groaned. _She's right. I just…need to get to him…now…_

The soldier handed Miranda's submachine gun back to her and continued to shoot his weapon to the best of his accuracy. "Take that, you bastard!" he yelled.

"Go ahead, Samara. We'll hold out." _Although probably not for much longer. These men look tired, and_-

Miranda's inner dialogue got broken by a husk that surprised her from behind. She whirled around, slammed her submachine gun's butt into its skull repeatedly, and shoved her arm forward. The husk got sent backward by her telekinesis, along with two others like a pair of bowling pins that fell onto one another. "Down you go!" she shouted triumphantly.

"Ah!" A marine helplessly yelled as four of them surrounded him, ripped away his gun from his arms, and viciously tore away at his armor. He was about five feet away from Miranda to her left, and she spun on her heel to hurl them all backward into the pile of rubble. She finished them off by gunning the creatures down and hurried over towards the poor man. It was Lee, and he fell to his knees in pain. She activated her omni-tool.

"Hold still," she ordered him, but he shook his head.

"No. I'm no good to you like this." Lee looked down at himself; there were now gaps in his armor near his ribs, and blood poured forth from some very fresh wounds in his back. "I can't breathe without it hurtin' like a bitch."

"You've probably got a cracked rib or two. We can get you some help, and this medi-gel will stop the bleeding." She was about to give him an application, but he gently laid a hand onto her arm.

"I know you've got somebody you love, and you wanna get to him. But I'm only gonna slow you down from joining him."

"Don't be a fool. I have plenty more to spare."

He shook his head. "But I already lost my wife and our daughter who was on the way. There's no one left for me to love. Go on, leave me here. I don't know your name, Miss, but…God be with you." With that, he keeled over onto his stomach, and she let go of him to stand up.

"It's Miranda," she told him.

He groaned one last time. "Nice to meet…-" The sentence never finished.

_Goddamn this war!_

"Miranda, we should leave now. I am prepared to leave," Samara announced through her earpiece.

Miranda licked her lips and took one last forlorn glance at the fallen soldier who had just given his life for his home planet. She shelved her sentiments for the moment and put away her weapon.

_Keep your goddamned focus._

"Good. Everyone on the shuttle ASAP!"

The remaining teammates joined her; they were now down another two people. Apparently, there was another soldier that had perished, but she didn't see directly what had happened to him. It was the one who had argued with her, the one who wore a red beret. _What kind of moron would wear one of those into a battle, anyhow?_ she mused to herself.

Miranda sat down next to Samara in the co-pilot seat and switched on her omni-tool to try to patch herself into the Alliance's channels again. This time it worked. "Can anyone hear me? Shepard? Anderson? Coats?" she tried.

Unfortunately, no one did. She made two more attempts, but it did not work. She could only hear the transmissions, which made her feel even more anxious now. Harbinger had just landed near the conduit and was now ripping the Hammer forces to shreds with its powerful beams.

"What's happening?" Samara suddenly inquired, breaking Miranda's concentration.

"It's not looking good. I think Shepard and Anderson are on foot now."

Samara's eyes remained focused on her flight. "Goddess Athame, I pray that you protect these strong and determined humans. Give them your might and let them complete their mission."

_Oh, crimony… _Miranda bit her lip and leaned her elbow onto the window. _Maybe there is someone there watching over him. I shouldn't be so hasty to judge her faith, after all, it's helped her get through a lot_.

"Let us not be too late so that we too may assist them all," the justicar finished her prayer. They rode for another twenty seconds in silence.

Miranda suddenly gasped as she heard Major Coats' horrible news. _No. I don't believe it. Someone must have…did he just say what I thought he said_?

"Miranda, long ago, I said that you were a strong human, and that you do not share your burdens easily. But whatever is causing you this much alarm…you should not hold back now." Samara's eyes quickly skirted themselves over to the human biotic, who rested her head against her hand, and then they went back to the air.

"It sounds like…nobody's made it…damnit…I'm getting a lot of static here," she groaned and attempted to clean up the transmissions. "No, I don't believe it. They're calling for a full retreat now." She paused for a moment to listen for a bit longer. "Can you get us to the coordinates I'm sending to the nav system here?"

"The ladar readouts do not forebode our situation to be anything less than perilous, Miranda. There are several capital Reapers right there by the conduit. Are you sure that you want us to proceed in this direction?" Samara inquired.

"I don't care. Do whatever you have to do to get us there…_now_."

"As you command, Miranda. I am prepared to walk into the fire." The asari slid her gloved fingers over the hepatic panels to change their navigation and course.

Miranda arose, walked towards the remainder of the unit, and cleared her throat loudly. All of the marines gave her their attention. "Where we're about to go is going to be extremely dangerous. I don't blame any of you should you decide not to follow me or Samara, but we are going to get to that conduit. The rest of Hammer has decided to fall back, but I'm not going to let that happen. When she lands the shuttle, you all have every right to get the hell out and leave, but the two of us will head towards this conduit."

One of the marines raised his hand submissively.

"Yes?"

"Ma'am, can you please say that in plain English? Do you mean that you're putting this aircraft into an LZ that's basically a sitch that's FUBB?"

Miranda's eyes nearly penetrated his as she tried to remember some of the acronyms that Shepard had taught her once after they had just made love two days after the mission through the Omega 4 relay.

The lights in Shepard's quarters were on but at an extremely low level. Shepard never felt completely comfortable giving an artificial intelligence control over everything in his life, so when the Normandy was being retrofitted for the thanix cannon, he also requested that the turian engineers install a hepatic panel right near his bed on the nightstand. Garrus' contacts were likely not pleased with the extra work, but they never complained about it. Like Garrus said, "A good turian understands that it's his duty to follow a bad order."

Mordin also provided his omni-tool with a software application that would respond to the lighting panel, in return for Shepard's patience with the other repairs that he sometimes absent-mindedly forgot to fix.

They were both spent now…after two whole rounds of passionate lovemaking. The first time, it was just like the engine room: rough, fast, and hard. Miranda absolutely dominated him, but the second time, it was an entirely different manner. He completely turned the tables and used his biotics, just to keep her place even, while he fully satiated her carnal desires. She couldn't believe how maddening it all was, how he kept her powerful legs from crushing his head and her body onto the sheets at the same time. Miranda found herself cursing out loud because he was such a tease. No one else had ever brought her to the brink of insanity like this before.

However, when he finally did join her this second time, he was gentle. She had absolutely no idea what the time was, nor did she actually care. For once, nobody interrupted them. After a while, the both of them lay on their backs in complete silence.

Miranda finally rotated her body towards him and propped her head onto her elbow. "Shepard, I…" her lips quivered. "I don't know how to-"

"You don't have to say anything, woman," he chuckled and turned his head towards her. "The fact that you were screaming with pleasure was pretty obvious to me that you uh…enjoyed yourself. And that your two years of hard toil were definitely worth it all."

Her wanton eyes slid up and down his body, then gave him a smirk. "Told you that I do damned good work."

"Yeah, you sure did." He pivoted his body towards hers now. "So…think of this as a thank you."

The smirk disappeared, and her eyebrows furrowed with curiosity. "For what?"

"Staying here with me…and pretty much telling the Illusive Man to go screw himself. Glad he's not your MFWIC anymore."

She rolled her eyes. "You'll have to spell that one out for me, Shepard. I'm sure that it was a true privilege to have been an Alliance marine to you, but for me…my grasp of your slang is just not-"

"Mother F'r Who's in Charge," he told her with a quirky beam and ran a wandering hand onto one of her breasts. "Wanna hear some more?"

"Well, I suppose that it couldn't hurt. I never know when I'll be thrown into a situation with a bunch of Alliance marines, but it'll probably be slim to none."

"We're not all that bad, are we?"

"No," she said and playfully smacked his hand. "Enough."

"Oh, are you being distracted, Miss Lawson?" He left his fingers exactly where they were despite her protests. She charged up her implant and gave him a slight shock, since his fingers were slightly moist. "Damn, woman, all right. I give."

Shepard retrieved his hand but also did the same with his own body and leaned forward to kiss her. She stopped him just short of her lips with her hand. "What else? You offered to tell me some more acronyms."

"I sure did. Well, there's FNG." He gently kissed the hand in front of him for a few seconds and made eye contact with her while he did so. "F'ing new guy."

"Kind of figured that one out already. Try to surprise me."

Shepard's lips left her hand and then went to her shoulder. "SNAFU."

"I think I could sort that one out, but tell me, anyhow."

"Situation normal and f'd up." He broke away to say these words and then placed another kiss onto her clavicle.

"Do I have to drag these out of you?" Miranda snorted.

"Patience, love, is a virtue."

She hummed through her throat as he moved onto her neck. "Says the man who stole a bloody kiss."

His lips parted and began to pull upon the flesh that covered her jugular vein. Three seconds later, he left it. "You didn't seem that bent out of shape about it."

"That's beside the point, you ass." Miranda's hand sneaked down his chest and turned it upside down as she attempted to grasp him, but he covered it with his own.

"FUBAR."

"F'd up and…" She suddenly scooted closer to him and nudged her knee in between their hands. Again, her biotics came into play; he exhaled through his mouth very slowly.

"Beyond all recognition." His blood pressure started to rise, and then he glanced down at his predicament. "You really are eager to bring me to attention, aren't you?"

"I owe you for earlier."

"Well, there's also TARFU." Suddenly, he felt his blood start to rush downward as she slowly rubbed her leg against him. "Christ, woman…" he squeaked.

"Mmm…well I'd have to venture a guess and say that f'd up is at the end of the sentence here."

"Yeah." When she hit a particularly sensitive spot, he let go of her hand. "Oh, go ahead, for crying out loud…argh!"

She laughed through her nose at his impatience. "Are you sure?"

"Totally and royally-that's what it stands for, I mean."

"One more for good measure." Miranda gently pushed him onto his back, and he willingly played along as she slid down his body.

"FUBB."

She blew onto his stomach. "And that would be?" Miranda kissed him there just afterward and licked her lips.

"F'd up beyond…" He took in a shallow breath as she trailed her wet lips downward. "Belief," Shepard moaned. "God, Miranda…"

"I promise to be just as kind as you were to me, Commander Shepard."

Miranda's sharp mind suddenly came back to the present day.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying," she nodded.

The soldiers all started to glance at one another as to how this civilian could possibly understand what he meant. The marine that had asked her the question about the situation being FUBB took off his helmet to stare at her in the eye.

"Ma'am, I say this with all due respect, are you nucking futs?"

She ignored his question, met his hazel orbs with her own slate blue eyes, and stuck out an alabaster hand towards him. "If none of you want to accompany the two of us," she motioned with her head in Samara's direction, "I'll be needing some more thermal clips."

He reluctantly pulled out two of them and placed the clips into her hand. "You've got a full on Neo complex, Ma'am."

"Samara, do you need any ammo?"

"I believe that I have an ample supply, thank you," the asari called back to her. "Miranda, come here for a moment, please."

The Aussie whirled around and made her way back up front to the pilot seat. "What is it?"

"The ladar readout signatures have changed."

"You mean…the Reapers are gone?"

"Indeed, from this area, they are."

Her face wrinkled with confusion, and she reopened the Alliance's FOB priority channels. Major Coats reported that all of the capital class ships were gone from the conduit and were now likely elsewhere in London or possibly headed back space to attack the convoy guarding the Crucible. The remnant of Hammer was now focusing on the Reaper ground forces and destroyers.

"Do you still want to land there, Miranda?" Samara asked.

Her heart was rapidly pounding in her chest. "Yes, take us in."

Samara perfectly guided the shuttle down towards the conduit. Dozens of gunships and Makos dotted the torn up part of London that used to be Westminster. The superior but magnificent deciduous trees of St. James' Park from nearby were either barren or uprooted. Miranda could only imagine what havoc the Reapers had caused to Buckingham Palace. Even though she was not English, she felt a slight pang of anger surge through her, and she felt uncharacteristically enraged.

She signaled the marine closest to her to open the hatch, and Samara brought the shuttle onto the ground. Moments later, she arose from the seat and swept her calm but collective eyes around the soldiers. "Goddess be with you all wherever you go. It has been an honor," she told them and followed Miranda outside into the rubble.

The marine who had yanked his helmet off to try and stare Miranda down grunted angrily at himself. "Oh, what the hell…hey…let's CS & MO. MFWIC's gonna need us," he barked at the others, then put on his helmet.

One by one, they all agreed, prepared their assault rifles, and pursued him as he went after Miranda and Samara. The Aussie whipped herself around and drew her gun but then relaxed when she realized that her targets were friendlies. Although she'd never actually admit to anyone but possibly Shepard, she was relieved that they had chosen to accompany her and Samara.

"Garrus and another human Alliance soldier named James were with Shepard when we first came down here," Miranda told Samara. "I don't know if he took the two of them in the final push to the conduit, but…-"

"Perhaps if we do not find either of them here, we should try to contact the Normandy," Samara suggested. "What does James look like?"

"He's a very large man and wore blue and white armor." Miranda moved her jaw from one side of her face to the other as she thought. "He has green eyes, and I think he was wearing a pair of delumacore goggles, but I'm not positive. It wasn't standard Alliance issue armor, that I know for sure-it was custom made for him like Shepard's."

The two of them began to search throughout the piles of bodies lying in the streets, and the leftover marines soon jogged over towards Miranda. "Ma'am, it's pretty obvious you're looking for someone. Wanna tell us who so we can give you a hand?" one of them inquired.

"If either of you know who Commander Shepard or Admiral Anderson are, then now would be a good time to admit to it. I'm looking for the both of them."

"Why?"

The soldier who accused Miranda of being suicidal shoved him in the back with the muzzle of his assault rifle. "Sierra Unit Tango Foxtrot Uniform, suck it up, and keep your eyes peeled," he ordered. He glanced at her. "Don't worry, we'll find them."

_Hopefully not in a giant crater bleeding to death,_ Miranda thought.

The party spent the next ten minutes looking through the streets, but it was to no avail. Shepard, Anderson, Garrus, and James were all MIA. Just when she was about to completely give up hope, a hand reached out to grab her leg from underneath the remains of a cracked statue, and she heard a man cry out for help. "Please…" the voice was faint and weak. Miranda froze with indecision. Was this Shepard? It didn't sound like him.

She glanced down at the hand on her booted calf and saw that it was absolutely covered in blood. "Help me…" the voice continued to beg.

"Samara!" she yelled, and the Asari ran over to her side.

"Is it…?"

"I don't know. Come on, we need to get him outta here. I think he's bleeding a lot and can't get out," Miranda insisted. She activated her implant, bent down to remove his hand from her leg, and seized it in hers. "Whoever you are, just hold still."

"Ah…it hurts…" the voice whimpered. "My leg, it's…I can't-"

She cut him off. "I know, just…hang on." The suspense was killing her.

Samara took a few steps back and created a kinetic field around the debris of the crumbled statue. The hundreds of pounds of marble lifted away from the soldier's body, and he sighed in relief. The asari carried the remnants of the statue away from them.

Much to Miranda's disappointment, it wasn't Shepard, just a regular marine. His body armor was completely charred, the lower half of his left leg was truncated below the knee, and she bent down to give him an application of medi-gel. "What happened? Where's Shepard?" she demanded after giving him a few moments to rest. "Did you see him or Anderson?"

The soldier nodded. "Yeah. His ship came in…the Normandy and picked up…his team. One of 'em got hurt, I think."

"Then what happened?"

"They were arguing-I was too far away to hear 'em. Damn, my ears are still ringing from all the goddamned gunfire." He yanked his helmet off of his head, threw it onto the ground, and covered his ears. "Why won't it stop, why won't it stop?" he whispered to himself and shut his eyes.

Miranda bit the inside of her cheek-he was clearly suffering from the effects of his last battle, but she also needed more information out of him. Surely it wouldn't break him to spill a little more. She covered her hands with his own, and his eyes snapped open. "Tell me what else occurred."

"I don't know-next thing I saw was this giant-assed beam blinding the hell outta me, the statue fell down, and then everything went black."

Samara released her kinetic field as she returned. "I did not find Shepard, Miranda, I am truly sorry."

The Aussie's head lowered disappointedly.

"But when I woke back up," the disabled marine called back to her, "I heard Coats on the radio sayin' something 'bout Hackett, but I can't remember what it was."

Miranda grabbed his hand and looked deeply into his eyes. "Try."

His mouth quivered in shock and terror. "I…I…don't know." His eyes suddenly grew as large as saucers as he looked behind her to see some Reaper troops start to creep up on the team.

_Great. Just what we bloody well need now._

Miranda helped him get to his feet while Samara prepared herself for combat. "Come on," she told him. "Let's get you to a place where you can get fixed up. I don't know if they can save the rest of your leg, but…-"

"Is it really that bad?"

"The sooner we get there, the better." The two of them hobbled over to the shuttle while the rest of the unit and Samara held off the cannibals, husks, and marauders. "Move!" she yelled as she felt a round whizz by her shoulder and nearly made contact with it.

Ten seconds later, they made it back to the shuttle. Miranda helped him into one of the bucket seats, and he craned his neck forward to get a better look at his surroundings. "What the hell…?"

She spun around to see what he was talking about, and the conduit's beam flashed a few times, then suddenly disappeared. Miranda touched her fingers to her earpiece. "Everyone, fall back! Let's get the hell out of here!"

**A/N**-There is someone who has kindly spent a lot of time doing some beta reading for me, and I thank that person for it very much. I would mention the person's name here, but I don't think that he/she would care for me to do that because the person is extremely modest. So, if you're reading this…you know who you are, thank you again.

So, for my British readers here, I know that I'm taking an artistic license with where the conduit might have been, but I like to give my audience a bit of a sense of reality. I've been to London myself and wish I could go back there again to see some more of it, but I was blessed enough to go once. For those of you who'd like to know more, don't be afraid to PM me and ask. Google maps is a wonderful thing.

Also, the thoughts that Miranda had about the soldier wearing the red beret are from someone else who kindly brought that to my attention and to poke fun at myself for also writing that character in in the previous chapter. (Bioware's writers aren't the only ones who can make mistakes. I am less than perfect, but I do try.)

The reference I was making when I wrote the words "Shingen Uesugi" was from Subjugation from Samantha Traynor. It's reference to Shingen Takeda and Kenshin Uesugi, who were clan leaders that had a healthy rivalry during the Japanese Warring States Period, aka, "Sengoku".

During the story "Subjugation" in chapter 11, this is the payoff for those of you who might have wondered what Miranda was talking about with Oriana when they were sharing a glass of wine. And for those of you who are wondering what I am talking about, perhaps you'd like to read it for some context.

Also, for those of you who might wonder who Operative Charon was from the previous chapter, take a look at either "Equivocation" or "Cultivation". He isn't the main character of either story, but you'll at least get some background into what kind of a person he is.

Thank you for reading, and apologies for making you all wait so long. Reviews are always appreciated, so thank you in advance for taking the time to do so.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

London, U.K.

The Mall, Westminster, 1233h

The Reaper forces were closing on the shuttle as the remainder of the fourth regiment of the 102nd marine division held the line. Six marines had left the shuttle twenty-five minutes ago, and they were now down yet another two. Miranda saw how desperate their situation was getting as the men were retreating, and she quickly removed her carnifex sidearm from her weapon belt. She thrust the pistol into the crippled marine's hands. "I don't have modded ammo on it, so time your shots," she ordered him and pulled out her trademark submachine gun.

He taciturnly nodded his head and watched her walk fearlessly towards the creatures. The marauders and cannibals were now dwindling in number, but the husks kept coming. Miranda strolled up towards Samara, who had just thrown about five cannibals into one another, and rested her palm onto the justicar's shoulder. "I'll handle this. Get the shuttle ready to go, Samara."

"Understood," the asari replied noncommittally and turned around on her heel.

Three husks ran straight towards her; she silently used her telekinesis to lift them momentarily up into the air, and then slammed them viciously onto the cracked pavement. _I am going to find him, damnit! You're not stopping me, you bloody beasts._

"Ah!" Miranda pivoted her body to her right as she heard one of the marines cry out in terror. Four husks had him completely surrounded and managed to knock his weapon away from him. He tried to land a few kicks and punches at them, but it was no use. They merely swiped their sharp fingernails into his armor, eventually penetrating it.

She unloaded the submachine gun into the ones who were attacking him from behind; they fell, and she rammed her fist into one's jaw with a savage punch. The marine retrieved his fallen assault rifle, jammed it into the remaining husk, and kicked it to the ground. Moments later, he fired the gun and let the abomination die. "Thanks," he gruffly acknowledged her.

"Not a problem," she responded and glanced at their surroundings.

The three other soldiers were slowly inching their way back to the shuttle, but she could tell that they were getting exhausted. She touched her earpiece. "Samara, are we ready to go?"

"Affirmative, systems ready."

"Then stand by to-" Miranda cut herself off to witness the strange display that just happened right in front of her very eyes. "What in the hell…?"

A cobalt wave of energy came sweeping over the earth.

The human abominations that had been fearlessly rushing towards them suddenly stopped and spun around in the opposite direction to run away. The rest of the marines all halted their fire and let their guns fall to their sides with wonder.

The capital class Reaper ships that had been firing on the Hammer forces ceased, and the mighty space crafts started to lift themselves upward into the sky.

"Samara, you need to see this!" Miranda called, and a few seconds later, the asari joined her by her side.

"What is going on?" Samara's eyebrows lifted to the heavens. "Goddess…this…doesn't seem…-"

Miranda swallowed her fear. "They must have fired the Crucible. I…I…suppose it worked."

"But why are the Reapers not falling to the ground? If the Crucible was built to destroy them, then…-"

"Maybe…" Miranda's mind tried to find an explanation but felt herself torn in between grief and logic. "I…I'm not sure." She suddenly lost her grip on the submachine gun, and it fell onto the ground with a loud clatter.

Samara's hand rose to rest upon Miranda's shoulder. "We should try once again to contact the Alliance. Perhaps there is an explanation for this."

Miranda's jaw tensed; she felt tears welling up inside of her but would not cry. Crying was a weakness, and even though she trusted Samara, she would not let the asari nor any of the marines on her team see her weep. There was a time when she held them back from Shepard as well.

The Aussie shrugged Samara's hand off of her shoulder and purposefully strolled towards the crippled marine. "See if you can get in touch with Major Coats," she commanded him coldly.

The soldier nodded. "What's your name and rank, just in case I do?"

"Miranda Lawson. I'm not part of the Alliance, but Coats knows who I am. I'm here with what's left of the 102nd marine division, fourth regiment. Our CO was Corporal Julien Bèrnard, and he was killed in action. Ask him if he's heard from Admirals Hackett, Anderson, or Commander Shepard."

He gave her a suspicious glance as if he had heard that name before but decided to fulfill her order instead. The rest of the unit filed into the shuttle to rest and remove their helmets. Miranda walked outside the shuttle, retrieved her fallen gun from the ground, and put it away. _You couldn't promise me to be careful, and now you leave me here? _She looked up at the sky and saw that the storm clouds had long passed. _Damnit, where the hell are you?_

"Ms. Lawson?" the marine called.

She spun around on her heel and quickly strode back to the shuttle. "Yes?"

"Major Coats says that he can't get in touch with Hackett. No one can contact Commander Shepard or Admiral Anderson, either, I'm sorry."

"I need to speak to him, so I'll drop you off at the closest medical station. Find out where that is and tell the asari."

"Roger that, Ms. Lawson, but he's asking if we can go pick up some more wounded parties first."

Miranda frowned and activated her omni-tool. "Patch my omni-tool into his frequency. Here's my IP address, subnet mask, and gateway code."

"But-"

Her eyes narrowed. "Or if you don't know how, give me yours."

"Lay off the attitude, lady, I'm not in the mood. My goddamned leg just got blown off, okay?" He didn't yell at her, but his reply was laced with bitterness. Seconds later, he did as she asked. "There, you should be able to talk to him now."

"Thank you." Miranda again left the shuttle for some privacy. "Major Coats, is that you?"

"Affirmative, Ms. Lawson. What happened to your unit, how many are left?"

"There are four Alliance soldiers plus the one who radioed you, which makes five. He's hurt, and I need to get him medical treatment fast. I already gave him some medi-gel, but I don't know how long he was passed out," she told him.

"We've got some room at the FOB here, bring him along with the others."

"Major, I'd like to speak with you about who's in charge now, and-"

"Ms. Lawson, we're just trying to figure that our for ourselves, honestly. Admiral Anderson is still MIA, and so is Commander Shepard. You'd do the Alliance a great favor by going out to bring back our wounded since you've got a shuttle and a pilot."

_I don't give a damn about the Alliance. I want Shepard._

She licked her lips and bit the upper one with her lower teeth. "Let's make a compromise, Major. I'll deliver these men to you first, but I'd still like to speak with you. _Then_ I'll go out and pick up more."

There was a pause over the radio. "Understood, Ms. Lawson. I appreciate your willingness to take charge here-you didn't ask to become a leader. It's the least I can do to honor your bravery."

_I only did it because nobody else would bloody step up to the plate._

"Send me the coordinates-we'll be there momentarily."

"Roger that, Ms. Lawson. See you soon." Ten seconds later, Miranda returned to the shuttle, gave Samara the data, and they flew towards the FOB.

Twenty minutes later…

The marines helped their wounded colleague onto a gurney, and Major Coats met Miranda just outside the hospital's entrance. Several doctors were running around madly from one bed to the other. She knew that Shepard wasn't among them but couldn't help looking at each soldier who lay in pain on his or her back on her way out.

"Now, Ms. Lawson, what would you like to talk about?" Coats inquired as he read over some information on a data pad.

"I'd like to know what the chain of command is now."

"For now, it looks like I'm the one running things-fastest promotion that I've ever received."

"Who gave it to you?"

"Well, no one really, but uh…no one else here has a high enough rank to even be considered for it nor the experience. I'm not particularly excited about it myself, to be honest." He ran his gloved fingers over the hepatic screen and tapped it twice. "My first order of business is going to be to look for survivors, so that's why I'm asking you to go back out there with your asari friend. Where is she, by the way?"

Miranda ran a grimy hand across her chest. "I heard her say that she was going to go help some of her people on the floor above this one. Don't worry, Major, I can get in touch with her at any time. So, did you say that you lost contact with Admiral Hackett not too long ago?"

"Yes. You saw what happened when that Crucible weapon fired. It's a bloody miracle, that's all I have to say about it," he mused and shook his head.

"Major, I…there's something I need to know before Samara and I head back out," Miranda began.

"What's that?"

"Did Shepard or Anderson make it to the Citadel? We searched through the wreckage near the conduit but couldn't find either of them."

Coats grimaced. "I wish I could be more positive, Ms. Lawson, but…well, I do know that someone got there because I heard Hackett say so. I um…hope that we can find them soon, too. Both of them were good men, and although I got to know Anderson better than Shepard…" he trailed off when he saw her avoid his eye contact. "Best of luck to you. I'm sending you the coordinates of areas that were hit heavily by the Reapers. Do you think that you'll be needing more thermal clips, just in case?"

_Maybe to put some poor bastards out of their misery rather than bring them back here to die slowly. It's strange. Those husks ran away from us._

Miranda met his eyes finally. "No. We'll be fine, thank you, Major."

With that, she touched her fingers to her earpiece and called Samara to be ready to head back out.

Ten minutes later…

Samara eased the shuttle onto the ground near the neighborhood of Westminster again. They were not too far away from the famous Scotland Yard either, which unfortunately, lay in smoldering ruins as well.

Miranda and Samara departed from the aircraft and noticed something very peculiar about the place. It was peaceful, but there was something completely unnatural going on not fifteen feet away. The husks that had once been tearing everything and everyone apart on sight were there picking apart the wreckage. They were gently carrying bodies from the buildings back to the streets. The dead ones were carefully placed beside one another, and Miranda froze in terror as one husk approached her with a body slung over its shoulder. Moments later, she pulled out her pistol, but Samara stopped her from firing it.

The abomination that had once been a human gingerly set the wounded and moaning body of an Alliance soldier into the bucket seat on the shuttle. It turned around once it had completed its task and motioned to the other husks to bring the other injured bodies forward. "My god…what the…" was all Miranda could muster.

Another husk brought a male human child that was practically stiff with shock and placed him at her feet. She regained her composure and began to examine the child. He had a few cuts and scrapes on his cheeks but otherwise looked all right. "You're safe now. No one's going to hurt you," she told him gently with a forlorn smile. "Can you tell me your name?"

The child's tousled hair was jet black and his eyes were electric blue. He refused to make eye contact with her at first and sat with his hands encircling his knees to his chest in a fetus-like position. Miranda crouched down and eventually went down onto one knee. "What's your name?" she asked him again in a hushed tone. When she swept a protective hand across his cheek, he pulled away from her touch. "I'm not going to hurt you, I'd like to help you."

The boy's eyes did finally meet hers for a brief second and then flashed away. "Do you know where my mum is?"

Miranda's jaw flung partially open; she had no clue what to tell the child and watched the husks collect various medi-gel packs around the area. They began to administer them to the injured. Samara's voice brought her back to the real world on her radio. "Miranda. The shuttle is full-shall I take us all back to the Alliance's FOB?"

The Aussie blinked hard and arose to collect her poise. "Yes. I've got a boy with me that I'll be bringing along with us, and I'll be right there." She stretched her hand out towards his. "You look hungry. Come on, I'll get you something to eat."

He took a cautious step backwards. "Mum made me promise not to take sweets from strangers."

"I want to help you find her," Miranda said with a desolate smile. She didn't truly believe that they ever would, but perhaps this would entice him to acquiesce.

"Okay." The child nodded and did as told.

On the way back, Miranda held his hand. As the shuttle fought against the air current and encountered some turbulence, he squeezed hers a bit harder.

Coats met her at the rendezvous point along with two other Alliance shuttles. "Is there any way we can get him a bite to eat?" Miranda asked as they departed from their own. "He looks like he hasn't eaten for days." She motioned to the child, who had now released himself from her hand and clung to her left leg shyly.

"Can't promise him a Beef Wellington, but I think we've got some energy bars that'll do," Coats told her with a nod.

"Major…er…uh…what are you, now…-"

"General. What is it, Ms. Lawson?"

"Have your patrols been reporting any strange activity in the last half an hour or so?"

"You mean, like that?"

He gestured to his left; about thirty rachni swarmers were clearing out the debris, and the brutes were bringing more wounded parties toward them. She bit her lip. _Just what in the hell is going on here?_

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean," Miranda agreed.

"I'm not going to even begin to speculate, Ms. Lawson, but as long as we don't have to fight the damned things any more, it's fine with me." Coats scratched the back of his head. "Look, we're running out of medical personnel here. We're being brought more injured soldiers than I thought we'd recover. The Reaper creatures are even giving them medi-gel treatments, but, well…have you got any medical training?"

She eyed him carefully. "What do you need?"

"We just need them to be scanned and catalogued according to the seriousness of the wound for now. I'll even take him off of your hands, if you'd like." He reached for the little boy, but the child flinched and started to whimper softly into her leg.

Miranda's eyes narrowed. "I'm not a bloody nurse, General Coats." She pried the child off of her appendage, huffed, and took the his hand in hers. When she started to turn around and leave, she felt a cold hand pull on hers. A husk stood there with a data pad in its hands and gave it to her. Before she could say anything to the creature, it left, leaving her just as puzzled as ever.

Miranda let go of the child's hand for a moment and ran her fingers across the screen. "I'm hungry," he called to her. "You promised."

Her eyes did not leave the screen. "I'll only be a minute, then we'll go, okay?"

To: Miranda Lawson

From: Invalid address (sender unknown)

I'm okay. Please don't look for me-help the Alliance now.

Will write more when I can. I love you.

"What in the…-" Miranda's forehead crinkled as she tried to make sense of the strange and unconventional message. Moments later, the whole picture came to her, and she dropped the data pad in shock.

_Oh my god. The Illusive Man was right. That's got to be the only reason why and how these things are…are helping us._

Her fists balled themselves up in anger at her sides. "Damnit, how could you just…-"

Tears now began to fill her eyes, and she closed them.

The boy left her side momentarily to pick up the data pad and tapped her hip. "You dropped this." He watched her curiously as she could no longer stop the tears from streaming down her face. "What's wrong?"

Miranda wiped them away, sniffled, and took the data pad. "Nothing." The screen's previous message was gone, and a new one just appeared.

To: Miranda Lawson

From: Invalid address (sender unknown)

Stop worrying about me, Miri. Take care of the boy-he needs you.

Miranda kept the data pad with her and once again reclaimed the child's hand. "Let's um…get you that food now, okay?" She took him into the base away from the dismal sight of the wounded troops who were either deadly silent or writhing in pain on stretchers, beds, and gurneys.

Five minutes later, after a bit of eyelash batting and flirtatious overtures with the marine who was managing the food stores, Miranda managed to procure some water as well as a few energy bars for herself and the boy. She realized that she never actually did scan him to see if he had an ID on him nor check to see if he had any physical trauma. Remedying that would be no small task since she had practically no experience with small children. Getting him to sit relatively still would be a piece of cake, since she had yet to give him the food.

Miranda's eyes scoured the base until she found one corner of a room that wasn't currently occupied by any military personnel. She discovered a countertop right next to a sink that was about three feet off the ground and patted it with her hand. The child gazed deeply into her eyes for a few seconds and then glanced at the countertop. He repeated his actions, only more quickly this time. She didn't quite catch his taciturn remark, so he reversed the action, looked at the countertop, and then met her eyes with his. This time, she understood what he meant, and helped him up. As a reward for his cooperation, she presented him with the energy bar. "Hold still, please. I just need to check something," she firmly told him.

The Aussie activated her omni-tool and waved it over his body like a magical wand. He paid absolutely no attention to her actions while he focused his busy little fingers on opening the package. His small tongue was mired in deep concentration, and it ran quickly across his upper lip as he finally was able to tear a corner off of the packet triumphantly. Unfortunately, the boy either had no ID or perhaps, the connection to the extranet around here was not functioning. He gleefully gave her a brilliant grin and showed her that he was very proud of what he had just done.

"Yes, that's very good," she returned but only gave him a partial one. It quickly disappeared from her face when her medical readouts came back to her. The omni-tool diagnostic found a growth of a tumor on the child's occipital lobe. Miranda frowned; she couldn't even begin to speculate as to how this poor kid got this thing. It was minor now, and there was always the possibility that it could be benign, but if it had time to grow, things could get complicated _very_ quickly. "Don't eat too fast, now."

The boy ignored her and shoved a huge quantity into his mouth.

She rolled her eyes and ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. "All right, you've got some food in you now. What's your name?"

He kicked his feet against the countertop happily and rocked from side to side. Three seconds later, he shoved the other half of the energy bar into her hands. Touched by his good manners, Miranda glanced downward at the food, and he gave her a thumbs up as if to say 'you'll like this.' Unsure of how to handle this new concatenation of circumstances, she gave him an apprehensive glance, then ate a small part of it, and gave the remainder back to him.

This time, Miranda gave him a genuine beam. "Come now, I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

He laughed and shook his head 'no'. This apparently was an amusing game to him now. It was one that Miranda would patiently wait out. He would tell her eventually when it was time.

The data pad that Miranda had been carrying suddenly flashed again, and she removed it from underneath her right arm.

To: Miranda Lawson

From: Invalid address (sender unknown)

Go home and rebuild. Take care of Ori. Start that academy you talked about and put that good old determination that you Lawson women are so infamous for. You don't need to keep this with you if it screws up your travel plans. I'll find another way.

I love you, and I promise that I'll be in touch soon when I'm able. 

The rest of the data pad began to fill up with binary numbers, and Miranda dejectedly put it down onto the countertop. The boy finished his energy bar and held up the wrapper. "Would you like another?" she inquired.

He shook his head 'no', and pointed to her mouth with his index finger.

"Why won't you talk to me? You were speaking before."

He shrugged and repeated his previous action. Then he held up the wrapper.

"Right, well…I suppose that I'd better take you with me, then. We'll look for your mother for a bit, but unless you talk to me and tell me her name, I can't help you, I'm afraid."

The boy once again signaled his finger to her mouth and held up the wrapper. This time, he shook it fiercely.

A realization came over her, and she eyed him curiously. "Are you trying to tell me that I should eat something?"

He nodded and kicked his feet merrily into the air.

"Yes, well, fancy a child telling a grown-up what's good for him or her. Ironic," Miranda mumbled to herself and agreed. "All right. Then can you tell me your name, or at least your mother's?"

The child willfully held up the wrapper again as if to give her an ultimatum.

She sighed and laughed once through her mouth. "You do seem to know what's best for me." Miranda removed an energy bar from her suit's thigh pocket and tore open the package. "You win this time, you little imp," she told him with a wink. "But I've had plenty of experience dealing with a much larger child than you."

The smirk he gave her was heavily reminiscent of someone who not twenty-four hours ago told her that he loved her for the very first time.

*A/N*-Apologies to everyone who has been patiently waiting for this next chapter. Adult life just manages to get in the way somehow.

For those of you who were wishing for Shepard to have picked a certain ending and be a bit selfish, I make no apologies. There will be consequences, good or bad with this decision for everyone in the ME universe. As the great Stan Lee says "with great power, comes great responsibility". And let me add that not everyone is up to the challenge. Shepard is not a god; he is human, ergo, not to give anything away, but there will be an up and coming struggle that he goes through.

If you have a chance, please do review. Constructive criticism will be taken into consideration. If you don't like, simply please state your reason why, and I might be so inclined as to change it. Thank you very much to everyone for their kind support. Again, here is another cheap shot advertising at my book, "The Edge of Obliteration", which should be available in about ten days on Trafford's website. There is no pre-ordering, I apologize.

In a few days, I will also be given a proper Facebook page. When that comes up, I will post it on my profile or try to write it in here as an author's note.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia

Three weeks later, 0912h

It had been approximately eighteen years since Miranda had stepped back or driven onto Henry Lawson's property. There was a front iron gate with gold plated leaves and a monogram of an "L" on it that separated the private driveway from the street. Somehow, the gate managed to miraculously stay unscathed. She bypassed the firewall system with her omni-tool, but it was likely that Henry Lawson used his birthdate as well as a combination of hers and Oriana's as his password. If she had really wanted to do so, she could have broken the code, but Miranda noticed that her much younger passenger had crossed his hands over the lower half of his lap. That was a warning sign that expediency was definitely in order here.

The practically invisible barrier that surrounded the borders of the property crackled once every five seconds; its generator would definitely need some repairs.

Downtown Melbourne was an absolute mess. It took her over two hours to hire a car from the airport, and the incompetent fool who was handling her paperwork managed to lose her reservation. Something about this child made her a bit more calm. She told him to go sit down in a chair, gave him a candy bar that she had purchased on the transport, and he obeyed her. For the next half an hour, the child stayed seated and seemed mildly satisfied with watching all the traffic going by the window outside. Miranda kept a close eye on him when she could; there was a point when he actually did ask her if he "could go outside to look at something", but she shook her head 'no.'

The boy's eyes lowered, the bright grin faded from his face, and he stayed close by her side at the agent's desk. When the agent once again apologized and notified Miranda that it would be quite some time before he could find a car for her, her bottom lip curled over the top impatiently. She understood how chaotic the times were now but did not express her disapproval outwardly. To do so would not help either of them and likely muddle his minuscule gray matter even more. Miranda informed the agent that she needed to attend to the child's needs and gave him her omni-tool's temporary addresses. These were access codes that she reserved for giving to third parties. Information could be a weapon, and there was no way that she'd let anyone she had no connection to at all into her personal life.

She settled for taking the boy outside while they waited. Again, Miranda asked him his name, and he refused to tell her. This battle of wills was a tad obnoxious, but Miranda understood why the boy was so distant with her. She did find his mother; unfortunately, the woman was very dead and had begun to decompose. Thankfully, he had obeyed her and stayed away from the body like Miranda told him. She had to be absolutely sure about the mother; she didn't want him to see anything more than what was necessary.

Even now as Miranda guided their car up the long and curved Lawson property, she sneaked an occasional glance at the boy. He peered out the smoked glass windows at the grounds, which used to be marvelously landscaped but were now scorched horribly. "So, what do you think?" she broke the silence finally. "I used to live here…a long time ago."

"It's big. Why'd you go away?" he inquired quite candidly. He continued to keep his eyes on the side of the road, perhaps to catch a glimpse of some wildlife. Young boys do typically love to look for animals. She was partially curious to see what he'd do if he encountered a joey. Perhaps that could happen some day.

"It's hard to explain, but…there comes a time in a person's life when he or she desires to leave his or her parents or whoever is raising him or her. My time just came a bit sooner than most," Miranda stated.

"Oh. Are we gonna meet your mum and dad?" This time, the boy's eyes went over to hers and so did his head.

"No. I never had a mother, and my father…he…passed away recently. It'll probably be just the two of us."

It was another five minute drive to the door, which they spent in silence. As Miranda bypassed the electronic lock with her omni-tool to let the two of them inside, she eyed the exterior of the house. Parts of the mansion were definitely ruined by the Reapers, like the part that used to be the room used for her studies as a young girl, but it didn't look like the east wing had been damaged. That was where her bedroom was for the first sixteen years of her life.

Miranda led the child past the foyer and down the hall towards the closest bathroom. Seconds later after she opened the door, he quickly slammed it in her face. "Sorry about that," she called. "I know you've been wanting to go for a while now."

Moments later, her omni-tool beeped to give her an incoming vid call. She didn't recognize the carrier frequency but let it through anyway. A familiar but most welcome, sanguine face with blue eyes and short bobbed dark hair greeted her. "'Randa, God, it's so good to see that you're all right!" Oriana blurted.

Miranda sighed and gave her a large beam. "I'm really glad to see that you're okay, too, Ori. Where are you?"

"I'm still on that Alliance ship…the SSV Benjamin Davis. We're stuck in the Arcturus system right now, and the Reapers are currently repairing the relay. They're also making repairs to our ship. Speaking of that, 'Randa, what the hell is going on?"

"I'm not sure, Ori. There are hundreds of stories circulating the extranet right now…conspiracy theories and all that, you know. I need more information before I can speculate any further."

"Yeah, rushing to a conclusion is kinda stupid at this point," Oriana nodded. "So uh…do you know what happened to Shepard? Is he there with you?"

Miranda's smile quickly disappeared. "No, Ori, he's not."

"Have you heard from him?"

"Yes."

Oriana huffed. "Is this going to be a game of twenty questions, 'Randa? What did he say? He's gotta be alive, right?"

"A part of him is…I guess. I…I don't know what to make of it all, really." She rubbed her forehead anxiously. "I got an email from him on a data pad. It was given to me by one of the Reaper creatures three weeks ago back in London."

"Yeah…am I crazy or something, 'Randa? I thought that we were fighting against the Reapers, and that we were going to destroy them with that thingie they were building…the uh…starts with a 'c'…-"

"Crucible."

The toilet flushed automatically behind her, and Miranda turned around as the door opened. The boy reappeared. "Sorry about the door. I really had to go," he told her with a shrug.

"It's quite all right. Would you mind staying close by to me for now? We can go exploring later after I finish talking to my sister."

"Okay." He nodded, briefly peered at Oriana, and then bent down to try to pick up a bug that had wandered into the bathroom.

"Ori, look, I…I thought that's what Shepard wanted, too. He destroyed the Collector base and wouldn't give it over to the Illusive Man. I…I don't understand it either."

"Yeah, and what would suddenly just make the Reapers want to repair the relays? The com specialist that I've been helping here…Shingen Uesugi's been getting messages that they've been helping reconstruct cities back home on Earth. Is that true?"

"From what I've seen, that's definitely what's been happening." _I'd rather not make any false assumptions here, but Shepard's got to be doing it all. Just what did that Catalyst do to him? Was it a power source, another variable in an equation…_

Oriana's voice brought her back to the real world. "Hmm…well, just where the heck are you? And who's that little boy with you?"

"I guess you could say someone led him to me while I was in London. His mother unfortunately didn't make it, so I'm watching over him for now." Miranda spun around when she heard a noise behind her. The child was just chasing after the insect now. "We're back home, in Father's house."

"What made you want to go back there?" Oriana's eyebrows knit together.

"Well, I think we spoke about this a while ago, but I'm going to have to settle the estate of Henry Lawson now." Miranda paused as she thought for a moment. "It'd be nice to have you here, too."

"Hmm…I didn't even finish my university degree yet. Do you think that those will be up and running back at home?"

"I haven't heard any news about it yet, but perhaps when you get back here, you can." Miranda eyed the boy with a twinge of irritation when she heard his hands clap together. "Did you get it?" she asked him.

"Nope."

"How about we talk about this later, Ori? I think someone here might be getting a little bit bored and need some supervision."

"Okay, I'll give you a call in a couple of days. That's when the Davis' engineers expect to be finished. I love you, 'Randa."

"I love you too, Ori." Miranda disconnected the call first and cleared her throat. "So are you ever gonna tell me your name, or do I have to invent one for you?"

"Maybe my mum never gave me one." The child made eye contact with her and smiled.

The Aussie rolled her eyes. "Don't be absurd. Everyone's got a name."

"Then you can make one up for me if you'd like."

Miranda's mouth flung partially open in shock. "Why would you let me do that?"

"Mum's dead, and I never knew my dad." He shrugged. "Maybe I didn't like the one she gave me."

Miranda wondered if he were still playing games with her or if he were actually being sincere. She'd never given anyone or anything a name before. Even the fish that were in her father's gargantuan aquarium never had names. She wanted to do so, but he told her that since the average lifespan of their Siamese fighting fish was not more than one or two years at most that it was pointless.

"So what now?" the boy inquired and stared at her outfit for a few precious seconds. "You look like a bee hive. Why do you wear that?"

Miranda glanced downward at her attire and could not help but laugh at the statement. "I suppose I do, don't I?" Her chuckles died down soon afterward. "It breathes nicely with my skin and helps me move around quickly if I need to defend myself."

"Why you don't wear that armor that I saw those soldiers in?"

"Because it's very bulky and cumbersome. Believe it or not, I actually do have a barrier myself. You just can't see it right now because I haven't turned it on."

The child's face wrinkled with question, and then he shook it off. He apparently did not seem to care what the word meant. "You said we could go explore. Can we go now?"

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea. You need to stay in my sight, though, and don't wander off without me."

He gave her a sour look. "We don't have to hold hands, do we?"

"No, but if you don't behave yourself, it might come to that."

His smile came back, and he galloped away as fast as he could down the hallway. "Damnit, it's almost like I just…" Miranda muttered to herself, activated her implant, and held him with a kinetic field. If the boy had been a teenager, she probably wouldn't have been able to keep him still. He struggled like a rabbit caught in a snare, and she pulled him back towards herself. "Was I not clear with you?"

"You're a biotic!" he grinned. "I've heard about people like you before!"

"Don't make me do it again, or we _will_ be holding hands from now on," she groused.

"That was kind of fun, though."

"Fine. Then we won't explore." Miranda switched on her omni-tool to take a quick look around the mansion's structure. "I can see a very lovely room on the next floor just above us that would suffice as a place for you to sit alone and do nothing but count cockroaches for a while."

"For how long?"

She released the kinetic field. "As long as it would take me to get things in order around here."

He frowned. "Okay, I'm sorry."

"That's better."

_Hmm…I like the name Alan. I wonder what it means? I want to say that it's French._

She doubled tapped her omni-tool's holo screen, typed in the name on the haptic interface, and pressed the 'enter' key afterward. _Little rock. Perfect for a stubborn but almost lovable little imp that he is. It's almost as if…_

"Miranda, whatcha doin'?" the boy questioned her and tapped his foot against the marbled floor.

"Don't call me that. How do you like the name Alan?"

"It's all right. What do I call you, then? You're not my mum."

"Ms. Lawson will be just fine for now," Miranda responded quietly. She motioned with her head towards the end of the hallway. "Come on, let's be on our way, Alan."

The boy did not run this time, but he did walk slightly ahead of her. They both arrived at a set of stairs, climbed it, and he froze when he reached the top. Miranda bit her lip with a tiny bit of concern. "What is it, Alan?"

"They look like spiders. What are those?" His tone was not filled with fear but rather curiosity. He stuck his index finger out and pointed to something. Miranda joined him and followed his signal to notice that about twenty little rachni swarmers were carrying pieces of debris on their backs from some piles of rubble. _What in the hell…?_ She lifted a hand towards a cheekbone as she tried to comprehend what was occurring right in front of her eyes.

"Ms. Lawson?"

"Uh…I…I don't think that they're going to hurt us, Alan. They're aliens from a different planet that uh…well, they're called the Rachni," she stammered.

Seconds later, her omni-tool beeped, and she received an incoming text message.

"Could I look at where they're coming from?" Alan wondered.

"As long as you stay where I can see you, yes," Miranda said with a nod and opened the file.

The child grinned again and wandered off towards the odd creatures.

To: Miranda Lawson

From: Invalid address (sender unknown)

Sorry if it's creeping you out, but I thought you could use some help back home. I couldn't find any records for the boy anywhere, and it's been hell getting the rest of the galaxy back on its feet. Hope you gave him a good name…I know that you've always wanted one. It's the best I can do for now, Miri…

Damn, now I know how EDI must have felt before she had too much interaction with humans. This is really weird.

Anyhow, hope you're not worried about me still, and if you are, then stop. The boy needs you, and I do too, but there's not much we can do about it right now. Gotta fix what these goddamned things tried to take away from us all. I'll be watching over you and everyone else the best that I can.

Speaking of that, keep an eye on that statue on Torfan for me. I don't care if it gets dusty or even if the damned flame goes out, but I don't want people to start worshiping me like I'm some kind of goddamned god.

Miranda immediately hit the reply button. _I've got to try this at least once. Maybe it'll get to him_.

To: Invalid address (sender unknown)

From: Miranda Lawson

What the hell were you thinking? You destroyed the Collector base and told the Illusive Man that he was crazy for trying to control the Reapers! I don't understand you, you cold hearted bastard? Why did you just leave me here…?

She sent the text message, and about twenty seconds later, there was indeed a response. Her heart almost leapt into the air.

To: Miranda Lawson

From: Invalid address (sender unknown)

I know you're upset, Miri, and if it'd happened to me, I'd be thinking the same thing. But I had to make a choice. If I'd destroyed the Reapers, the Quarians or some other idiotic race in the future could possibly try to build synthetics again. Then we'd be in conflict and practically be wiped out. I know that the Geth don't want to do that to us, and nor would EDI. I also had a choice to do what Saren wanted, you know…for synthesis. It's wrong of me to force that on everyone who doesn't use math to make choices. Submission is not preferable to extinction for organics, and I'm sure as hell not going to allow some robot to tell me what's good for me. Free will is what we need, my love.

I should go.

Miranda tried to send back another response quickly stating that she missed him, but it came back to her undelivered. She let out an exaggerated sigh, and Alan hurried back to her. "You look sad," he stated.

"Weren't you interested in the Rachni?" Her azure eyes met his. "What are they doing?"

"Cleaning. I hate cleaning. You're not going to make me clean my room, are you?"

She chuckled and ran a hair through his jet black hair. "We'll see. Things should be tidy enough in a room so that a person can find what he or she needs. If I find that I'm tripping over things once we find you one, there'll be some consequences."

He crossed his arms defiantly. "Like what?"

Miranda raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure I could find something suitable. I've been told once that the anticipation of what's to come is far more ominous than-"

Alan was already looking at something else, and Miranda stopped herself before going on. She was going to have to revise her vocabulary for him. He seemed like a bright young lad and perhaps would be very eager to learn; however, this was far too advanced for whatever his age was. "Was your mother a good cook?" she suddenly inquired.

He thought for a few moments and then nodded. "She made some smashing good crumpets, real nice, and filled them with cheese. Then she could also make this-"

Miranda held up a hand. "I've been told that I have no cooking skills whatsoever. If worse comes to worse with the state of your room, consider your meals to consist of no crumpets but rather a few crusts of bread and a glass of water. Or perhaps some gruel would be in order."

Alan's face turned to disgust. "What's gruel?"

"I'll let you look that up on the extranet someday, but let me tell you this, Alan. It's something that they used to serve to orphaned children back in the 18 and 19th centuries. None of them would beg for more of it." She ran a pensive finger across her lip. "Just how old are you, Alan?"

"I turned eight last April. Mum gave me ten quid for two teeth that I lost right here." Alan motioned to his upper gums. "I don't have much of those left. If I lost some more, would you give me money?"

_Money for teeth? What an odd thing. I've never heard of doing that before._

Miranda scratched at her forehead briefly as she thought. "I'm not quite sure that I understand why I should reward you for something that occurs naturally."

"Didn't your dad give you quid for that?"

"No. I never received an allowance from him, either."

Alan looked about himself at his surroundings. "So where's my room?"

"The living quarters are on the next floor. Let's find you a room that's got a bed in it, hopefully made up already."

"I want a window. Can I have a room with a window?"

"Let's have some proper manners first, and then I'll consider it, Alan." Her jaw closed itself firmly after her last statement.

"Manners?"

"What exactly did your mother teach you about using the words 'please', 'thank you', and 'you're welcome'?"

He shrugged and made eye contact with the floor. "That they're nice to use."

"And if you'd like to get along in life, you're going to have to use them. Trust me, people are a lot nicer to you and more kind when you do. But there's a balance here, Alan. If you're too polite, then people will treat you like a doormat. I don't waste time being courteous to people I don't respect and neither should you."

Alan squinted as he glanced up at her and got caught by the sun. "What's that mean?"

She sighed and shook her head. "You've got a lot to learn." Miranda's head made a gesture towards another staircase. "Upstairs we go."

**A/N**-St. Kilda exists-it's a suburb of Melbourne in the territory of Victoria. For those of you who like geography, Sydney, which is the capital of Australia, is located in New South Wales, which is where the actress who voices Miranda is from. Although, interestingly enough, if you listen to her voice in ME3, you can tell that she's been living in the US for quite a few years now. Her Aussie accent has gotten much lighter. It's highly probable that since my interpretation makes Miranda Australian, she might partake in something later on that is native only to that particular area of the world…some tasty biscuits, perhaps. For my fellow folks from the US, I mean cookies. There's a certain custom that is performed down there with a ritual cup of coffee, and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it myself while spending a season there.

Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing-it's a pleasure of mine to keep writing for you all.


	6. Chapter 6

*A/N*-This is a reposting of chapter six. I have changed one or two minor things, but they are exceptionally important to the story, so if you like the story, please do re-read it carefully.

I had some writer's block for a couple of days last week, and someone who has been very kind to act as my second pair of eyes by the name of 80 Montana needed to go out of town. I am extremely grateful to this person for helping me out and giving me some much needed proofreading. So again, if you do like this novel as well as the others that I've written, please take a glance at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Trafford to look for my original novel called "The Edge of Obliteration". It's available on paperback as well as e-book, and if you're strapped for cash at the moment, I would suggest the e-book version. A free preview is available on those websites, too. There is a Facebook page simply titled "The Edge of Obliteration", and it'll link you to the book websites. Thank you to everyone for your patience, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Chapter Six

St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia

Lawson Manor, 0842h

The breakfast that Miranda managed to procure for them was quite unimpressive; the eggs in the refrigerator had long since expired, as had the milk. All that she could find for them were some granola cereal bars in the cupboards as well as some oranges that had somehow miraculously survived. Alan was quite perturbed with the fact that he had to peel his own orange, even more so that Miranda demanded that he do it all by himself. Hunger is a very powerful thing, though, and she suggested that he stop his sulking immediately, unless he preferred to go hungry. In that case, she stated that she would eat his orange and not waste it.

Thankfully, the coffee machine in the kitchen was still in working order, and after Miranda gave Alan a stern but short lecture about the value of independence, she set off to making a pot for herself. Five minutes later, the coffee machine finished its business, and Miranda was just about to pour herself some when her omni-tool beeped loudly. The china cup trembled about in her right hand; she had the presence of mind to set it down and activated the holo screen.

The familiar face of Dr. Liara T'Soni appeared. "Miranda, it's good to see you," she began.

Miranda wasn't sure if seeing Liara was actually a good or bad sign. After all, the asari was the most powerful information broker in the galaxy, and it was no secret to Miranda that she mooned over Shepard like an obsessed fan with a celebrity. _At least she didn't bring that ridiculous cod piece of Shepard's original N7 armor with her on the Normandy. That would have made the situation all the more awkward in between the two of us._

"Dr. T'Soni, it's been quite a while," Miranda agreed with the slight nod of her head and went back to pouring herself some coffee. "Hope you don't mind if I get some caffeine into myself."

"Please do." Liara nodded and gave her a contrite smile. "I was hoping that you might be able to assist me with a conundrum that I've been having. You see, the Normandy's not exactly ready to go anywhere. As a matter of fact, we crash landed on Eden Prime, and found that out yesterday when the reconnaissance party finally reported back to us. They ran across a Prothean dig site on the outskirts of the colony as well as some pre-fab units and some colonists."

"Hmm, and your engineers are repairing it." Miranda took a sip from her cup and cast her eyes across the kitchen. Alan was still seated at a table and digging his fingernails into the last of the orange peel; it was highly probable that he would not move for the next two minutes. "What seems to be the trouble? I gave Engineers Daniels and Donnelly the schematics as well as the blueprints from Cerberus before I left the Normandy the first time and gave up my so-called commission of being the XO."

"No, there's no trouble with that at all. It seems that…well, I've gotten a very odd message from someone." Liara scratched her fingertips on her forehead. "I've got a theory as to who wrote it, but the message came from an invalid address."

Miranda put her cup down onto the saucer when she heard this news.

"What was the message?" the Aussie wondered.

Liara's hand came up to rub her palm into her forehead. "I almost thought that it was a joke at first…I think…this sounds so bizarre that-"

"Try me. I've seen an incredible amount of bizarre things, especially in the past month."

"I think that it was from Shepard." She paused to gauge Miranda's expression, but when she saw nothing change, she went on. "The survivors of Eden Prime told Lt. Commander Williams that the FTL com buoys had been repaired, and I just had to see for myself if that was indeed a true fact. I apologize for disturbing you…"

"No worries, T'Soni." Miranda began to consume her coffee again. "What exactly did this message say?"

"That he was watching out for everyone in the galaxy now. Did he try to contact you as well?"

She unconsciously flickered her tongue over her lips a few times as she thought over her response carefully. "Yes. I'm unfortunately at a loss as to what truly happened to Shepard, though. Do you know?"

The asari's face darkened. "Affirmative. I know for a fact that someone made it onto the Citadel, Miranda. The Normandy has recordings of all Alliance radio transmissions. I'd rather not jump to any conclusions, but..."

"Then he was probably the one who activated the Crucible." _Or was he? It's impossible that he could have survived…no…I can't think like that yet._

Liara somberly nodded her head. "He also wanted me to contact you-Shepard, I mean."

"Why? When did he send this to you?" Miranda's eyes narrowed. It had indeed been a long time since she had heard from him-well, it seemed that way, anyhow. Anything longer than twelve hours was a long time.

"All he said was that he hoped you appreciated the help he sent to you yesterday, and that there will be more coming to you today, so don't be surprised about it…whatever that means. Um…might I ask where you are, Miranda?"

"I'm in my father's house on Earth right now. I'd also appreciate it if you'd answer the other question I just asked you, T'Soni."

"Which one was that?" Liara's eyes went elsewhere, perhaps towards her large message terminal. "Yes, Glyph, thank you. No, I don't think that EDI would appreciate your help right now."

Miranda rolled her eyes. _She was never all that adept at multi-tasking and keeping up a conversation when I first met her. That still hasn't changed. _"The question I asked you was when Shepard sent you his message."

"Oh, that. Sorry, Miranda, things have just gone absolutely crazy here in the past fifteen minutes. My VI has gotten glitchy due to the blast of the Crucible, and I'm afraid that if someone opens the door here that it's going to get loose again. Locking the door would probably be a safe idea. "

"Agreed." Now she was becoming a bit perturbed at the predicament.

Seconds later, Liara's concentration went back to Miranda. "Ah, that's much better. Now, Shepard sent me the message last night, and he didn't say if he couldn't contact you or didn't want to or…oh dear…I'm sorry, Miranda. I've got to go, I'm very sorry."

"What's wrong?"

"There's something happening in Sur'Kesh right now; it looks like there's going to be some kind of a coup going on in between the STG and some of the dalatrasses. I must speak with my agent there. Goodbye, Miranda, and Goddess be with you!"

Before Miranda could get in another word, Liara disconnected the call. She shook her head. "I can't believe that she still says that," she muttered to herself.

By now, Alan finished cramming as much of the orange into his mouth as he possibly could. There was juice all over his mouth and hands. "I'm done now. Can I go to my room?" he asked.

"Not until you clean your hands off."

The child examined his fingers, licked them, and wiped them onto his shirt. "Okay, they're clean."

Miranda face palmed herself. "No, they're not. Come over here with me, please."

She dragged a foot stool that was about one and a half feet high over to the kitchen sink, ran her hand underneath the faucet, and pushed a button for lukewarm water. "You don't need to use soap right now, but after eating something with your hands like fruit, you'll wash them properly."

Alan crossed his arms over his chest, which caused Miranda to lift an eyebrow.

"Oh, we're going to be like that, are we? Well, I guess that I won't take you with me today to go look at a kangaroo or explore the property. You can just stay in your room all day, and don't think that I can't lock you in there for one moment, because I can."

He frowned. "That's not fair."

"Did you mother always give you everything you wanted?"

Alan shrugged. "Pretty much."

"That's too bad, because that's not how I work, and that's definitely not how things run in the galaxy. Would you rather have fun outside today or sit in your room and think about it?" She removed her hands from the sink, took out a dishtowel from a drawer below it, and dried her hands. "Honestly, I don't think that I'm asking all that much of you. Now who is being fair?"

He thought about the situation for a few seconds, nodded, and hopped down from his chair. Alan ran over to the foot stool, climbed it, and ran his hands underneath the faucet. Miranda also withdrew a washcloth from the same drawer, let it get slightly damp, and handed him the washcloth. "I don't have to tell you what to do with that, do I?" she inquired.

The boy ran it over his face and threw it back into her own. Miranda bit her lip to restrain herself. "Don't do that again, Alan."

"Why?"

"Would you like it if I did that to you?"

"I don't care."

"Well, I _do_, and from now on, if I tell you to do something or not do something, you'll say "yes, Ms. Lawson" at the end of _everything_."

"Why?"

She lowered herself to his level and stared him in the eye. "Because _I _said so. What I say goes in this house, and if you can't respect that, you'll have to live with the bloody consequences." She was not overly harsh or loud, but she accomplished her goal. He backed away from her and would have fallen off the foot stool if she had not caught his arm to steady him.

"Yes, Ms. Lawson," he timidly returned.

Miranda released him and gave him a brief smile with a nod. "Glad to hear it, Alan. Now, what would you say to-"

She was interrupted by a rapping sound. _What the hell? Is that the front door?_

Alan immediately sensed her insecurity as she spun around and remained alert but silent as a grave, ready to move on her order. Again, there came a pounding to the large front oak door. Miranda glanced downward at her ward. "Come with me but stay behind me at all times. If I tell you to run, do not hesitate."

He agreed. "Yes, Ms. Lawson."

Miranda withdrew the carnifex pistol from her weapon belt, made her way towards the entrance with the boy, and stole a peek through the reverse viewfinder. The creature was not human or an alien…in fact, it was a geth prime unit. It appeared to be holding something in its arms, but she could not tell what it was. She hid the gun slightly behind her back, motioned Alan to back away, which he did, and opened the door partially. "What do you want?" she demanded.

"You are Lawson-Miranda, daughter of Lawson-Henry, who is now deceased," the prime stated. "We do not intend to cause alarm to you." It held up the carcass of a freshly killed chicken. "We were instructed to bring this to you and offer you our assistance."

"We? Who is we? I thought that…I mean…I don't-" Miranda halted herself mid-sentence when she saw about ten geth units behind the prime line up behind it. "Aren't you all individuals now?"

"Yes, that is true. Legion sacrificed himself so that all geth could have intelligence on the Creator home world Rannoch." The prime's head bobbed up and down as he spoke.

"I don't understand what's going on here." She sheathed her pistol, and Alan now wandered over to her right side to stare at the spectacle on the steps.

"This is for you. I was told that you would likely not have much nourishment due to the fact that many of these generators are in need of repair, and the refrigeration units have likely malfunctioned." He attempted to give the chicken over to her again, but she shook her head.

"While I appreciate the thought, I unfortunately don't know how to skin, pluck, or cut one of those up. I'm actually not very proficient with the culinary arts, either."

"Why do you not have the knowledge to do so? These are basic human instincts."

Miranda shrugged. "I was never taught to do so." She eyed the units behind the geth prime with curiosity. "Why else are you here?"

"We were sent to offer you our assistance with the repair of the Lawson mansion and were informed that your father has a few servers that currently serve no purpose. In exchange for our labor, we would like to reside and commune in at least one of them." The synthetic began to remove the feathers from the chicken as it spoke.

"Who sent you?"

"We received a message from an invalid sender and an anomalous signal. With your permission, the Geth would like to make a formal inquiry to the extranet and possibly attempt to find the origin of this signal."

"How could you be dispatched here and then…-" Miranda's hand came up to her forehead, and she sighed heavily. "I'll never understand how your minds work, I'm afraid."

"Your frustration is understandable. The geth are still attempting to do the same with organics everywhere. My fellow units and I do not fully comprehend why we were deployed from Melbourne to this area, but if you are willing to make a compromise…-"

The Aussie took a step backward, let her hand trail down her cheek, and blinked hard twice. "Well, far be it from me to turn away some help…um…thank you. Do you have a name, or do I call you Legion, too?"

"I do not, nor do any of my colleagues. If you so desire it, we will fabricate some so that it will be more comfortable for you and your companion to address us all."

"I suppose that that would be adequate." Miranda folded her arms across her chest and watched the prime unit's optic flex as he processed some thoughts. He had long since finished plucking the chicken and now placed it onto the doorstep.

"Would you prefer a Biblical name or a mythological name for this particular unit?"

"Weren't you given free will as a result of Legion's actions?"

"Yes, but it is a pleasure to serve you, Lawson-Miranda. Cooperative symbiotic relationships are currently being constructed on Rannoch in between the Geth and the Creators. They are following the same tradition."

Alan tapped her on the hip. "Why are they all just standing around like that, Ms. Lawson?"

"They're probably waiting for their next order from…have you made your choice yet? I honestly don't give a damn what your name is."

"This unit will now be called Samson."

Another geth trooper stepped forward and joined them at the top of the steps. "This unit wishes to call itself Orion. May I come inside and prepare this animal for you for your nourishment?"

"Well, it's a bit early for our next meal, but…"

Orion picked up the dead bird and offered her his hand. She merely raised her eyebrows in response. "Is this not how humans greet one another?" he wondered.

"I'd return the gesture, Orion…is it? But there are also diseases that we humans have to worry about when we come into contact with dead birds. I trust that you'll do the appropriate research before preparing the chicken?"

The geth bowed its head slightly. "As you wish, Lawson-Miranda. I will also clean the dining and kitchen areas thoroughly. Do I need to scan the household for appropriate materials?"

"Just…come inside and stop dripping that thing's blood all over the doorstep." Miranda's face wrinkled with repulsion. A revelation suddenly came to her as the rest of the geth then turned away to begin their construction and clean-up of the property. "Samson?" she called to the prime.

The giant synthetic halted in its tracks. "Yes, Lawson-Miranda?"

"Thank you. I actually…really needed this. If you could repair the property's barrier generator sometime today, I'd also be very grateful."

"Perhaps that is why we came. If you require any further domestication assistance, do not hesitate to ask for another unit," Samson replied neutrally. "We will start with the western half of the property now that some of the rubble has been cleared away. The servers are on the northern side. It is likely that later today, I will send a unit into your abode to interface with one of them, so do not be alarmed if you see one of us there."

"If he finds anything, I'd appreciate being notified about this mysterious signal that somehow contacted you," Miranda informed him.

"That is a logical request. We will fulfill it."

She turned towards her young companion. "Ready to have a look around, Alan?"

He nodded silently. Unlike the day before, he stayed close by her side as she escorted them throughout the lush property. While Alan explored the inner world of an overturned dead tree trunk, Miranda began to hash out some thoughts in her mind that were bothering her.

_I wonder if he was struggling with the effects of indoctrination. Even though I read about some of the missions he was on before we met, I don't truly know how many Reaper artifacts he came into contact with. We were on a derelict Reaper, and that thing was definitely still alive. All of the Cerberus teammates were sharing memories and hallucinating._

_ Harbinger was interested in Shepard; I remember how the being spoke about the fact that the Collectors were to take him alive when we were fighting them. Did the Reapers want him to take control? Did they somehow force him to do this?_

_ Just how much of this control signal really is Shepard? I just cannot bloody accept that he would have so easily succumbed to being some kind of damned AI and not be here with me. He said that he wanted to be with me, damnit! It doesn't make sense!_

_ There were times on the Normandy when he just seemed so far away, so distant…goddamn you for giving into them, Shepard! You let the Geth have free will but gave up yours? What the hell did you…-_

Miranda's augmented hearing sensed some disturbances in the tall grass behind her; she whirled around and saw a geth unit approaching her. Her eyes swept over towards the tree trunk where Alan was on his knees likely getting very dirty and picking up all sorts of insects. _I can't stop him from being a young man and discovering new things, but we are definitely going to have to talk about sanitation next_.

"Lawson-Miranda, my name is Magellan, and my fellow co-workers would like to inform you that the property's barrier generator is now prepared to go online. Would you like for me to activate it?" Magellan inquired and animated his omni-tool.

"Please do, Magellan."

Moments later, a lightly saturated violet dome that was approximately twenty-five feet in height appeared after the geth sent his electronic command. "The code for activation and deactivation can be sent to your omni-tool. Would you like me to send it to you over your network?"

Miranda's jaw dropped open with disbelief but then shut it. _They've only been here for over an hour…naturally, they'd repair that first and then the barrier generator. I'd better find out just how many of them are going to interface with that server and just how many servers they've actually taken. They said that they were only going to use one, but…_

"Lawson-Miranda, did you not understand the question asked?" Magellan asked and remained puzzled as to why she was taking so long to answer a yes or a no question.

"I did," she nodded, "you're still planning on using only one server, right? Or did I misconstrue our agreement?"

The geth's head bobbed up and down. "That was the agreement, and are you concerned about our communing numbers?"

She folded her arms across her chest. "I'd be lying if I said no."

"Your caution is understandable but unnecessary, Lawson-Miranda. There are ten geth units like myself plus one prime unit on your property that are designated as platforms. I do not feel the need to house more than one program inside my platform since I am now a fully evolved A.I. Some of my other companions wish to upload some more to theirs. Before this exchange takes place, we feel that it is appropriate to ask you, since the server does belong to you."

"Will you be constructing more platforms like yourself or Samson?"

"Only if you deem it necessary, Lawson-Miranda. We are here to help you and wish to learn more about organics as well," Magellan responded neutrally as he held his hands up submissively.

Miranda's eyes momentarily left his as she watched Alan peering at a caterpillar that slowly inched itself along his lanky arm. "You're not going to put that into your mouth, are you?" she directed her question towards him.

His eyes did not move from the bug. "No. Do you think that this is going to be a butterfly or a moth?"

"Hmm…hard to say from where I am. Bring it over here carefully, please." She returned her attention to Magellan. "I don't think that it's necessary for now. Send me the barrier activation and deactivation codes on the following-"

"It's been sent to all of your extranet email accounts. Please delete the information once you have selected the appropriate-"

Miranda held up her hand. "I've got it covered from here, Magellan, thank you."

"Does my presence here bother you?" The geth lowered its hands and made eye contact with her.

"No, but I won't be asking you to babysit anytime soon."

Alan kept his arm frozen as stiffly as possible and walked over towards Miranda. She scanned the creature with her omni-tool and raised her eyebrows when the data came back to her. "Hmm…it'll be a moth in about a week, Alan. Better put it down gently and let it go back to its natural environment."

"Can't I keep it?"

"If you want a pet, we'll have to find you something that will live longer than a bug." Her omni-tool lit up as an incoming call suddenly flashed on the holo screen, and when she saw who it was, she smiled. "Alan, I need to speak with someone here, but you can go back to where you were, all right?"

"What about those kangaroos?"

"I'm sure we'll find some before the day ends." She made a dismissive motion with her head. "Go on, find something else to do where I can see you. I'm sure that there are some rocks to turn over and look at."

He picked the caterpillar up gingerly from his arm and marched back toward the tree trunk without another word.

Miranda followed him, and Magellan merely watched them with keen interest. "Hello, Ori," she began the conversation as she answered the omni-tool. "I'm fine, thanks. When are you coming here? I haven't the slightest idea about the universities-haven't had time to look, honestly. That's something you'll have to research yourself, Ori. Hmm…I think I've got an idea of how I can find out where Shepard is, but I'll need someone's help. No, I don't think that it's anyone you know; I'll tell you when you get here. Tomorrow? Really? No, that's grand, I'd love to pick you up. Where's your transport coming from? Right. I'll see you then, Ori. I love you, too."

*A/N*-Okay, apologies for making everyone wait so long. I had some writer's block for a couple of days, and someone who has been very kind to act as my second pair of eyes by the name of 80 Montana needed to go out of town. I am extremely grateful to this person for helping me out and giving me some much needed proofreading. So again, if you do like this novel as well as the others that I've written, please take a glance at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Trafford to look for my original novel called "The Edge of Obliteration". It's available on paperback as well as e-book, and if you're strapped for cash at the moment, I would suggest the e-book version. A free preview is available on those websites, too. There is a Facebook page simply titled "The Edge of Obliteration", and it'll link you to the book websites. Thank you to everyone for your patience, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia

One week later, Lawson Manor, 0733h

Having Oriana on the property was a welcome change. She was most curious about Alan's history and gushed over the fact that it was Shepard who had brought him to Miranda in London. Miranda was still unsure of the whole situation herself but found several ways to occupy her busy mind throughout the week. Since banking institutions were once again open, she immediately started the long and arduous process of dealing with her father's estate. Despite his repulsive behavior towards Miranda and Oriana on Horizon, he actually did leave some money to them both. Henry Lawson also did do some good throughout his life, though. He contributed financially to the Sirta Foundation from time to time but mysteriously pulled out just before the company came into fiscal trouble in 2183. She discovered that he also sent money to Grissom Academy-perhaps he knew Jon Grissom earlier in life. The rest of it, though, funneled through various "charities" and numerous fictional corporations.

The geth that were communing in the server reported traces of this anomalous signal that was being broadcast to practically everything over the extranet. There were very few times that it would communicate with them, and Samson reassured Miranda that they were doing their very best to pinpoint the location. So far, the geth were able to eliminate various points of origin in the galaxy; it was not coming from Illium or Omega. The signal was also not coming from Feros or Noveria. There was, however, one time that they encountered the signal spending quite a bit of time sending commands to aid the rebuilding of the colonies of Mindoir as well as Fehl Prime. Approximately twenty capital class ships were deployed as well as harvesters that carried human husks. Miranda awoke early this morning at about five-thirty. After completing her morning stretches and a jog around the property, she came back to start brewing the coffee at a quarter to seven. Orion was already there, but he did not attempt to operate the machine. Three days ago, he completely ruined the whole pot by making it too weak. There were also heaps of coffee grounds that somehow made it through the machine's filter into the end product. Miranda brushed him off harshly and said that from now on, she would see to the task.

Alan joined her about fifteen minutes later. He was exceptionally rambunctious this morning after his glass of orange juice, so she decided that breakfast this morning would not include any sort of sugary cereal. "Orion, I think that some toast would be in order for us, please. I'm not sure what Oriana wants, but if she wakes up any later than nine o'clock, she can make her own damned breakfast," Miranda stated and rolled her eyes. "Would you like some peanut butter on yours, Alan?"

"Yes, Ms. Lawson," the boy nodded and gave her a genuine grin. "With honey on top."

She cleared her throat and raised an expectant eyebrow at him.

He finally added the word that she was anticipating. "Please."

"Good. Now, Orion, I'd like a hard boiled egg with just one slice of buttered toast, please. Once we've finished, we'll put the dishes in the sink for you to attend to later on."

"Affirmative," the geth replied noncommittally. "Are there any other tasks that you'd like for me to complete today, Lawson-Miranda?"

"I'd like a report from Samson regarding your extranet searches for the control signal's origin, and I'd also appreciate it if you'd wash the outside windows, starting on the first floor. Do you know how to properly wash windows?"

"What is your definition of properly washed windows?"

Miranda poured herself a cup of coffee and motioned her head towards one in the kitchen. "Do you see the streaks of dirt that are caking the glass?"

The geth's optic flexed as he assessed the window. "There is also dirt on the inside, Lawson-Miranda. Would you prefer that I do the inside first? We have many supplies to combat the filthy grime that has integrated itself with the-"

She raised a hand. "Just get it done, please, either way, thank you. I have quite a lot of business to attend to today."

"Acknowledged." Orion opened the refrigerator door to begin his chores and remained silent for another five seconds. "Lawson-Miranda, Samson will report to you at your discretion. His usual commencement of operations is at eight-hundred hours, but if you desire him to-"

"It's too early for that. I'd rather learn about his discoveries after breakfast."

"Affirmative." The geth continued to prepare their breakfast.

"Can we get a dog? I'd like a dog, please," Alan suddenly broke in. "I don't like cats-they're too mean."

"We'll see. I don't plan on living here for very long, probably until I get a lot more things done. Transporting a dog off-planet might be a tad difficult," Miranda responded gently.

The boy opened his mouth to begin to argue, and she patted him on the shoulder.

"That isn't a no, Alan. It's a maybe."

"Oh. Am I going to have to go to school?"

Miranda bit her lip and winced as she remembered the reason why she had not slept well last night. The tumor that she had found in his occipital lobe was malignant, and it had metastasized. If she didn't do something about it soon, it would likely be inoperable and…_no, I'm not going to lose you, too. Not to something like that_. _I saved Shepard once-I can do this, too._

"For now, no," she finally responded and tried to mask the pain in her voice.

"Mmmm…" Oriana's greeting was almost unintelligible as she padded her way into the kitchen. She drowsily swayed past the table, grabbed a mug that Orion offered to her, and went straight for the coffee machine.

_Hmm…another thing we share_, Miranda mused. _We both need coffee before we can have coherent discussions. She'd be better off having more water than coffee this morning, though._

Orion brought a tray over to the table with Alan's toast as well as Miranda's on two separate plates along with some silverware. "Your hard-boiled egg is not yet done, Lawson-Miranda. Please allow another two minutes to completion. Lawson-Oriana, do you wish to partake in any nourishment this morning?"

Oriana's hands came up to massage her temples. "Not so loud. Aw…it hurts," she whimpered.

Miranda rolled her eyes and sighed with exasperation. "I told you not to drink that last glass of wine; you should have had more water. It was great to share those two bottles of wine with you, and I know that you're still hurting because of that boy you loved, but I don't know why you din't listen to me, Ori. You're lucky that our father gave the both of us such a hearty constitution. Most humans would barely be able to get out of bed with the amount of alcohol that you consumed last night."

"'Randa, please," Oriana whined. "Stop lecturing me."

"Right." Miranda nodded. "Alan?" The boy's attention snapped over to her. "Do you see the predicament that she's in? The groaning, the pain, the thirst, and the restlessness?"

"What does predicament mean?" he inquired.

"Her current situation, her status…just…watch her."

"Oh, okay. For how long?" He shoved a large piece of toast into his mouth.

"I want you to see what happens when you drink too much alcohol. Does this look fun to you?"

Oriana groaned and let her head sink into her hands. "Still too loud."

"No, it doesn't," Alan said. He then looked at Miranda. "Can I stop looking now, Ms. Lawson?"

"One of these days, we'll need to discuss the difference between can and may…" Miranda remarked. "Yes, Alan, you may, as long as you keep that picture in mind later in life."

"Okay." He licked his lips and took another gigantic bite of his breakfast.

_And if I have anything to say about your life, you're going to have a very, very long one._

The Aussie consumed some more of her coffee. "Ori, I know your head hurts, but we need to talk about the woman you met on the ship, Dr. Brynn Cole."

Oriana moaned and looked at her coffee. "Couldn't we do this later?"

"No," Miranda replied firmly and shook her head. "I need to talk to her today. You mentioned last night that you'd give me the information I needed about her, and I'd like it as soon as possible, please. It would also be better for you to drink water instead of that coffee."

"No, I didn't," the young woman argued. "I just told you that we met and that she was with Jacob now. I have no freaking clue as to how to get in touch with her."

"Your egg is ready, Lawson-Miranda," Orion suddenly informed them and brought it over to them. "Lawson-Oriana, have you selected what particular choice of food that you would prefer for your morning nourishment?"

"You got anything to get rid of how rotten I feel?" Oriana mumbled. "Not sure if food's the answer."

The synthetic's servo-motors flexed themselves around his optic as he examined her question pensively. "Is your current status what organics refer to as a hangover?"

The young adult whimpered a 'yeah' and lifted the mug up to her lips finally.

"Your discomfort is unfortunate, and your electrolytes are unbalanced. This condition must be rectified in order to bring harmony to the Lawson household. You must eat, Lawson-Oriana." Orion carefully dropped another egg into the boiling water on the range.

Miranda's eyes narrowed as she made eye contact with the geth. "I don't appreciate you ordering my sister around like that. If she doesn't want to bloody eat, then don't try to force it down her throat."

"I did not mean to cause offense, Lawson-Miranda." Orion's head bobbed up and down. "Please accept my apologies."

Miranda shrugged coldly and turned her attention to Alan. "I might need to take you somewhere that won't be too much fun today, but afterward, I promise that we'll go have a look for a dog, all right?"

"Really?" The corners of Alan's mouth turned upward.

"Yes. If you're finished, you can go up to your room and play."

"What about going outside?"

Miranda shook her head. "Later. I need to talk to my sister now."

"Okay." He wiped his mouth off on his sleeve, which made Miranda inwardly grimace, but she did nothing to outwardly express her dismay besides purse her lips. "Bye."

Alan was literally gone in two seconds from the table, and before Miranda could grumble about his poor manners, Magellan wandered into the kitchen. He was carrying a data pad and strolled purposefully towards them. "Lawson-Miranda, I bring news from our searches on the extranet for the anomalous signal that is controlling the Old Machines. It is likely that it also partially controls the Geth. Samson has come to this conclusion, and I am also seeing various manifestations of this occurring in my code and runtimes, so I concur."

"Was any of that in English or Galactic?" Oriana muttered and sipped some more of her coffee.

"No, try logarithmic algebra or calculus, Ori," Miranda said with a twinge of amusement. "Then you'd be speaking his language perfectly."

"Ugh. I think I'd rather shove my head into a blender first."

Miranda smiled and laughed through her nose briefly. "I needed that. Thanks, Ori."

She merely shook her head, felt another sharp jab of pain, and began to massage her temples once more. "I wasn't trying to be funny. Those robots are starting to freak me out, 'Randa."

"I do not follow your logic, Lawson-Oriana," Magellan informed her.

The young adult rolled her eyes, picked up her mug, and left the room.

"Have I caused an offense, Lawson-Miranda?"

"No. Thank you for making the breakfast, Orion, and Magellan, tell Samson that I'll speak with him later today, perhaps in the afternoon."

The geth nodded his head. "Affirmative. Would you like to schedule a possible rendezvous?"

Miranda set the dishes in the sink. "Think of it as a variable in an equation for now."

"Unknown quantities such as the one you have suggested are particularly difficult for me to comprehend, but I will attempt to do so." After he gave her this last comment, Magellan did an about face, and marched out of the kitchen. Before he could completely leave her sight, Miranda whirled around. "Wait a minute."

The geth halted mid-stride and faced her. "You have another inquiry, Lawson-Miranda?"

"I'm just…thinking aloud here." She rested her chin on the back of her hand and supported its weight by crossing her arm underneath it. "We found out that the Catalyst was the Citadel, and that was the last part meant to complete the Crucible. Did any of the Geth work on this project?"

"Yes. We virtually connected ourselves to the Alliance's com buoys over the extranet and a secure one thousand twenty four bit encryption key."

"Then do you think that…well…" Miranda bit her lip and sighed exasperatedly. "I don't have any reports telling me that Shepard made it off of the Citadel. Nor do I actually have any that confirm that he made it onto the Citadel. I…I'm just bewildered by all this. Do you think that he's still there?"

"That is a logical assumption. His corporeal form-"

"No, I _mean_…he's got to be the one who's controlling the Reapers and now…apparently a part of you, the Geth. Do you think that he could still be alive in there…somehow?"

"That is conditional upon how you define life, Lawson-Miranda. The Geth are alive but do not always utilize hardware. Are we alive?" Magellan pointed towards himself. "Do we have souls?"

"I…I don't know how to answer that question. I'm not sure if I believe in a soul."

"Why not? Many humans philosophically agree that there is something separate from the physical manifestation of your-"

"Answer my question." She crossed her arms against chest.

"I believe that Shepard-Commander has a soul, and he is alive. I cannot answer for my fellow colleagues, but they likely share the same conclusion as I."

"In that case, I'd like for you to try and contact him. I tried to send him a message a while ago, but I'm not sure if it got through."

The synthetic suddenly froze for a few seconds, and his iris completely closed. Miranda was about to take a closer look at him, but then it opened again. This time, the iris had a blue tint to it. "What the hell is going on?" she exclaimed and uncrossed her arms.

"Miranda, I'm sorry about all this." The voice that came through the geth's vocal modulator was distorted but almost human. "It's me."

"Shepard?" Her eyebrows furrowed with confusion.

"Yeah, sorry."

"Did you get my message?"

"Which one?"

"I sent you one last night at about midnight."

"No, I didn't." The geth's shoulders shrugged. "Liara called you, didn't she?"

She ignored his question. "Why didn't you get my message?"

"I don't know. Something weird's been going on with me ever since I…well, I guess I'm a little too human for this AI's taste or something."

"What do you mean? What AI? You're the one who's been doing all this, right? You sent the Geth, the Rachni, even the boy to me…?"

"If I could smile, Miri babe, I'd do it." He tilted his head to the left slightly. "The Rachni have been singing to me about him."

Miranda was about to respond to him, but something was amiss here. He never called her that before. Only in the last few minutes that he had spoken to her had he even used the name "Miri", which she wasn't sure how to accept at first. It was, after all, the same childhood name that Niket had used for her. Somehow…later on…thinking about how he called her "Miri" during the final battle was one of the things that kept her going. However, Shepard had _never_ used the term "babe" before. Perhaps once and a while, he had said the word "love", but this thought gave her some pause.

"They've been doing what?" she finally inquired.

"Alan's a good name, Miranda."

She closed her eyes and hung her head. The tears that she'd been holding back on Earth all that time ago suddenly started to swell up within her eyes. "With all that you said to me before you left, I…I just don't understand you…-"

Shepard paused in his speech as he studied her trembling form through the geth's optic. Her sobbing was bitter and her breathing was ragged.

"I think you do-you just don't want to accept it." He glanced down at the geth's claw-like hands. "Would it be weird if I…yeah, it would."

The tears began to subside. "What're you talking about?"

"I wanted to try and run this body's hands across your face, but I'm not sure how fine the servo motors work on this thing. I'm not even sure if…well, damn, it's too bad that EDI's not here. I would have preferred to take control over her body. At least she had five fingers on her hands and not these stupid claws." The digits flexed back and forth erratically.

She let out a short laugh through her nose. "Somehow, I doubt that she'd let that happen, Shepard."

"Maybe one day, love, I can come back into human form. But right now, I…I just don't-"

"I brought you back before," she interrupted him. "And I'll do it again."

"No," the geth shook his head, "you can't, Miranda."

Her eyes narrowed. "They also told me that I couldn't do it the first time. Don't you ever tell me that I can't do something, Shepard."

"Damn, you're sexy when you're angry. If this thing had lips, Miranda…-"

Suddenly, Magellan's iris closed, and when it opened once more, the optic went back to its normal white saturation. He glanced at Miranda. "I must have experienced another runtime error. Apologies, Lawson-Miranda. You had asked this unit a question approximately two minutes ago, but I cannot find a record of it."

Miranda sighed dejectedly. "Never mind, Magellan. Just…I need some time alone, now."

"Acknowledged." He left her presence without another word.

Shepard had also never called her "sexy". The word beautiful and gorgeous might have come out of his mouth quite a few times, but why now? This did not feel like a compliment, and if she were the sort of person to become easily frightened, it would have likely given her chills.

Pushing her inner conflict away, Miranda stiffened up, and made her way towards an office that she'd created in the last couple of days. It was plastered with three rows of several holographic monitors but was not nearly as extensive as Liara's displays on the Normandy, and a singular terminal sat upon a platform in front of it. In a flat voice, she made a voice command to initiate the morning lighting for the room, which included mostly natural light. Mechanical shades slowly lifted themselves about three inches at a time every two seconds, and half of the room was illuminated by sunlight alone.

"Show me the last browsing data from yesterday," Miranda commanded the computer terminal. Moments later, the harmless machine obeyed her command and brought up several holos of Reaper capital ships on the top level of monitors that were present. On the second row down were files and reports written by several different species as each one made their observations about the Reapers. Miranda's eyes darted towards one that described how the Reapers virtually infected the Geth consensus. She marched towards the monitor with keen interest to read it in detail.

A voice from her right did not deter her from her work. "Well, I finally gave in, 'Randa. Hope that stupid robot's happy," Oriana grumbled. "Whatcha doing?"

"Studying the Reapers."

Oriana approached her sister timidly and wrapped her arms around herself. "Yeah, I know, but _why_?"

"Because…somebody needs to do it."

"Well, we're not fighting them anymore, so why do you really care? I mean, since they're both organic and synthetic, they've got some sort of personality, but I don't get it, 'Randa."

"We're not fighting them right _now,_ Ori," Miranda corrected her. "That may change."

Oriana's eyebrows wrinkled. "Why do you say that? I don't get it. Didn't you say that Shepard is controlling them? He doesn't want war with us."

"He also disagreed with the Illusive Man's decision to keep the Collector base intact so that he could use the Reaper tech." Miranda finally tore her eyes away from the screens to look at her sister. "He called it an abomination. I wonder…why wouldn't he want to destroy the Reapers? It doesn't make sense to me."

The younger woman shrugged. "Yeah, I guess you'd know since you were there." She paused to think the situation over. "So you don't think that there will be peace forever? I'm not so sure I understand where Shepard is."

"I think it's only a matter of time, Ori, before the peace is violated. I'm not so certain of where he is myself, but I just heard from him about five minutes ago. It didn't sound right."

"Wait, wait, wait. How did you-"

"He took control over Magellan for a few minutes to talk to me."

"So, what…he didn't sound like himself? Well, wasn't he talking through that geth's voice thing?"

"Modulator."

"Yeah, that's what I meant."

Miranda gave up; it was pointless to try and describe Shepard's manner of speech to Oriana. He had met her and spoken with her, but she didn't know Shepard like Miranda did. She decided to switch topics. "So, any luck with finding a college, yet, Ori?"

"I haven't found anything near here that's got a highly recommended colony development program," Oriana said and curled her bottom lip over her top.

"That doesn't mean that you can't go to one and get your degree."

"Maybe I won't need one."

"What makes you say that?"

Oriana shrugged and made direct eye contact with her sister. "Did you get one?"

"I'll answer your question when you answer mine."

"It's just…well, while I was looking for a university, I saw an ad on the extranet about a company called ExoGeni. The war kind of screwed things up for them, well, no, not kind of…it really screwed things up for them. And they're um…looking for people to help them run things."

"Good. Now, to answer your question, yes, I did. All of my courses were done through correspondence via the extranet. Since Cerberus had several medically trained professionals, I had some of the best on-the-job training, too. The best teacher is experience, Ori. Don't let anyone tell you anything differently."

"You're not upset with me for not wanting to finish my degree?" She uncrossed her arms.

"You'll finish it someday, I'm sure. If you want to help our colonies get back onto their feet, I think that that's a laudable idea, Ori. It's quite practical, too." Miranda's attention went back to the monitors, and she drew her finger across one of them to move a virtual window out of the way so that she could read the next one below it.

"So uh, did you sleep okay last night?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"I got up to go to the loo and saw you running around outside. Is there something wrong, 'Randa?"

_Sometimes coming from the same test tube isn't such a blessing_, Miranda thought and pursed her lips together as she thought of a response.

"Don't worry about it, Ori. My problems will fix themselves in due time."

"What if they're not your problems that you're worried about, like me?"

Miranda stopped reading the data and gave her sister a sidelong glance. "They're not, Ori. I'm concerned for you, yes, because I love you, but I'm not worried about you…well…at least not any more."

"Then…what are you…" Oriana began, but when she realized that she would likely not receive a straight answer from her sister and immediately halted her query. "Want me to check on Alan?"

"I'd appreciate it, yes, please, Ori." Miranda gave her a ghost of a smile on her exit and then brought up a communication channel on her omni-tool. _He might be dead. Then again, I could be imagining things. He would definitely be able to contact that woman if she were still alive. After all, she worked for both Cerberus and the Shadow Broker._

The Aussie typed in an encrypted address on the hepatic panel, and within the next ten seconds, life was beginning to look up as she was able to contact her old mentor, Operative Charon.

"Somehow, I knew that you'd make it out of this alive, Miranda," he announced with a proud beam. "Good to see you."

"Likewise, Charon. I need a favor."

"Is that so? Are you able to travel?"

"I'd rather not leave where I am, at least not quite yet," Miranda replied ambiguously. "You know that the Illusive Man's long dead, don't you? And Kai Leng as well as the rest of Cerberus that was indoctrinated."

"The Alliance is hunting down war criminals and demanding justice. Anyone associated with Cerberus is potentially in a bad situation. I need to keep a few steps ahead of them, just in case."

"Really? That doesn't sound like something Admiral Hackett would do."

"Hackett is not the only one who's running the Alliance, Miranda."

"Very true."

"What is this favor?"

"It's about someone who worked with you. I need to get in touch with Operative Serena Longoria."

"What makes you think that I know where she is or keep in contact with her?"

Miranda bit her lip impatiently. Charon was an extremely paranoid man, and he had been with Cerberus since its conception. It was that caution that kept him alive during the Reaper invasion and war. She needed it now and would therefore have to put up with his quirky methods. "It was honestly a shot in the dark, Charon."

"Hmm…well, should you ever play the lottery, Miranda, you'd win."

"I'm sorry?"

"You're in luck," he stated with a grin. "Want me to pass a message to her or just give her your contact information?"

*A/N*-For those of you who would like to know who Charon is, I'd suggest reading "Equivocation" or "Cultivation". Thank you for those of you who leave reviews-they are always appreciated. Remember what I said about the earlier chapter? Hmm...is there truly peace in the galaxy? And for those of you who don't know what happened to Oriana's boyfriend or crush, I recommend reading "Subjugation". That pretty much describes how Shepard and Miranda's relationship blossomed during the last few missions of ME3, anyhow. More action will be coming soon, I promise.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Split, Croatia

Two months later, 1941h

Finding a direct transport to the metropolis of Zagreb to meet a diplomat with high credentials at the Australian Embassy was impossible for Miranda. The closest major city to her destination was Split, which was a major shipping port for the country. An educational vid in multiple languages about Croatia's controversial and explosive history that ran throughout the transport's flight informed the audience about the modern necktie or cravat's origin. It also mentioned the bitter war in the late twentieth century that occurred in between Croatia and its neighbor Serbia. Miranda chose to pay attention to it for a grand total of thirty seconds before losing interest. She had absolutely no intention of being a tourist here.

Nonetheless, Miranda was extremely grateful that Oriana was willing to stay back at home with Alan in Australia while she made this trip. There were two tasks for her to complete with one fell swoop: first, she planned to make a rendezvous with Serena Longoria, who was an agent for the Shadow Broker, and second, Ambassador Dominic Osoba sent her a cryptic message asking to meet her. He claimed that Admiral Hackett knew her through Commander Shepard, and that Shepard did him a personal favor. He wished to meet her in person as well as make a very important offer, one that she would find difficult to refuse.

Miranda wondered how secure Osoba's diplomatic channels were, since he told her that he could not legitimately discuss them over the QEC he was using. She was also a bit concerned…no-she was worried about Alan's tumor. The oncologist that she had taken him to was hopeful and assured Miranda that since she had caught the tumor early that they could treat him. Chemotherapy had been abolished from all medical practices on Earth in the latter half of the twenty-first century, since the radiation's side effects were worse than most other treatments. It was also known to occasionally cause secondary growths elsewhere in the body.

Still, Alan went to his first session without many complaints to Miranda. He squeezed her hand tightly throughout the procedure, which involved local anesthesia treatments and some drilling directly into his cranium. The laser eradicated as many growths as it could, and the next part of the process would involve surgery that was even more invasive.

Miranda activated her omni-tool once she left the transport and glanced at a twelve-month calendar marking Earth's solar year. _Three more days until that surgery. I'll take him to an animal shelter afterward to get that dog. He's taking it better than I am, the little imp. I wish I could…_

Her thoughts were interrupted by another woman who bumped into her. "Sorry," was all she said and kept walking as if nothing had happened.

Normally, Miranda would have been nonplussed with such a perfunctory apology, but there was definitely something about this woman's appearance that was familiar. She was not dressed in typical civilian clothing but rather wore body armor underneath a trench coat. Miranda's keen eyes caught the hint of a predator pistol hanging off of the woman's hip on a weapon belt loosely.

The Aussie decided to follow her intuition for once and pursue this blonde woman. _She must have done that to me on purpose. What was that? She just looked over her shoulder directly at me._

The blonde stayed with the flow of human traffic and made a sharp left down an alley, which Miranda did as well. She led Miranda down a myriad of narrow cobblestone streets, which might have been charming but certainly vexed her now. Five minutes later, the woman finally spun around and halted. Miranda did the same and prepared to charge up her implant should trouble arise from this confrontation.

"So, we meet again," the woman said with a smirk and crossed her arms against her chest. "Sorry about the chase-had to make sure that we were alone."

"Apparently so." Miranda had no intention of giving her possible assailant any sort of advantage whatsoever. Her body began to glow with an azure hue as she charged up a biotic field.

The other woman held up her hands in front of herself. "Hey, relax, Lawson. We met…before the war on that planet...in the Cyprus system back when your team from the Normandy was extracting Commander Shepard from that Cerberus base. Am I ringing a bell yet?"

Miranda's eyes narrowed as she scrutinized her conversant. A memory from nearly a year ago surged through her neural pathways as her synapses fired and connected quickly. "Yes, I do remember you now. Serena Longoria?"

The woman nodded. "In the flesh. Now, a mutual friend of ours contacted me. He said you wanted to meet up, so here I am."

"I'm aware of your…" Miranda cleared her throat, "unique relationship to our friend and to someone else who's very powerful in the underworld."

"Not many people are." Serena folded her arms back against her chest. "What do you want from me, Lawson?"

"I want to talk to your employer."

The Canadian scoffed. "You've gotta be kidding, right? Didn't you hear that Cerberus got blown into smithereens?"

Miranda shook her head 'no' and released her biotic field. "I meant your other employer."

"Oh, I see. Why do you wanna talk to the Shadow Broker?"

"That's irrelevant information for your ears. What I have to say to the Broker is between the two of us."

Serena cocked her head to one side and gave her a sneer. "Well, you're gonna have to make an allowance, because I'm not leaving."

Miranda rolled her eyes. "Look, I don't have time for games. I know that you are contacted by the Broker at a certain time each day, and I must speak with-"

"I got that part. What I don't get is why you don't wanna answer my question, simple as that."

_What a bloody waste of my time…it was ridiculous of me to think that I'd ever get in touch with Liara this way. I would have tried to contact her myself if she hadn't scrambled her channel with all that junk data. She's the only one who could possibly locate Brynn as soon as possible and-_

The Shadow Broker agent's omni-tool chirped loudly. "Humph. Speak of the devil. Guess you lucked out today, Ms. Lawson."

"I'll need your gateway address and subnet-"

"If you're thinking about trying to contact me privately, Ms. Lawson, I'm afraid that that's quite impossible. It was however, quite wise of you to utilize Agent Longoria to contact me," Liara's voice came over the communication channel. It was heavily modulated, but that didn't matter to Miranda. "It's also quite rare of me to speak with someone who is not affiliated within my network, but you make…an interesting exception."

"So did I…a long time ago," Serena muttered to herself. "The Broker's certainly gotten a lot more theatrical recently."

"Would you like to buy information or exchange it?" Liara's pitch-shifted voice asked neutrally.

"I'll trade it." Miranda's fingers slid over her omni-tool. "Here are three encrypted code keys for some Cerberus assets that might be quite valuable to your network. Does that sound like an adequate offer?"

"That will be acceptable. Agent Longoria will take possession of them and upload the data to my network in approximately twenty minutes."

"No problem," Longoria nodded.

_She accepted that offer a little too easily. If I were in her shoes, _Miranda thought, _I would have held out for a bit more. Or perhaps I would have given it some more time._

"What information would you like, Ms. Lawson?" the Broker pressed.

"Do you know the whereabouts of Dr. Brynn Cole? She was a former Cerberus physicist and has a relationship with Jacob Taylor, who used to work under me."

"Your query is being processed, and it will take a few moments to extrapolate that data."

"Yeah, and while the boss is doing that, would you mind giving me those codes, please?" Serena politely asked.

"Done," Miranda agreed and did as she requested.

About one minute later, Liara reactivated her channel. "Ms. Lawson, Dr. Brynn Cole and Jacob Taylor are on the planet of Ferris Fields. She is expecting a child and is currently five months' pregnant. They reside in the capital, which is named New Bethlehem."

"Thank you." Miranda was about to walk away from the conversation until she heard Liara give her agent further instructions.

"Agent Longoria, you are to visit the colony as well and investigate it for the following artifacts," Liara commanded her.

A holo of three orbs that were translucent and bioluminescent hovered above Longoria's omni-tool. They were all different sizes. "What do these things do?" Serena questioned Liara.

"These devices were paramount to stopping the Reapers from wiping us all out."

Miranda's eyes narrowed. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I believe that I was speaking to my agent, Ms. Lawson."

"Then she should have encrypted her channel and left the vicinity."

There was some hesitation on the channel as Liara gave the matter some thought.

Longoria's hand went towards her pistol but did not pull it off of her belt. Miranda's eyes did not miss the action; she merely folded her arms across her chest. "Look, we're all on the same side here, aren't we? It was pretty obvious from your actions throughout the Reaper conflict that you didn't want to be wiped out either," the Aussie commented to Liara. "You have my solemn word that none of this information will be leaked to _anyone_."

"Your words do not sound void, Ms. Lawson," Liara's modulated voice informed her. "For now, you have my trust."

"Yeah, and if you betray the Broker, think twice about doing it. Someone will be sent to kill you in less than a week," Serena smirked. "I've actually been ordered to do a hit on somebody with two days' notice."

_So have I_, _and I'll be damned if I'm going to let you get in my way. No one is going to stop me from getting to Shepard._

Miranda then shelved her hostile attitude. As usual, her exterior remained stoic and indifferent. "What do you know about these artifacts? What can they do?"

"Do you recall the process of indoctrination? Think of these objects as having the same properties, only without the process of implants," Liara stated.

"I'm not so sure that I follow you."

"Your comprehension is not necessary. Agent Longoria, handle these artifacts with extreme care. You will be given the location on your star chart at a later time once you have secured them and reported back to me; another agent will then contact you to retrieve them from that designated planet."

"Got it, Boss. Did you get the upload yet?" the Canadian asked and withdrew her hand from her pistol.

"Yes. A portion of credits has been deposited in your primary account in the usual amount, and the remainder will come after you have successfully delivered the orbs."

"Does Dr. Cole know about these orbs?" Miranda inquired.

"I am not privy to that information; you will have to discuss it with her."

The Aussie inwardly sighed in frustration. _Great…another mystery for me to unravel. Damnit, Shepard, where the hell are you?_

"Shadow Broker out."

"Guess I've certainly got my work cut out for me," Serena said with a sigh and deactivated her omni-tool. "The Broker had me running around like a chicken with its head cut off during the war. Some good did come out of it, though. I finally was able to purchase another ship and send the Goddess back to the ship junkyards. Can't imagine why he wants these things, but they must be pretty powerful."

Miranda shrugged. _If they are anything like Reaper technology, consider these days as being your last gasps of true freedom. _

She thought back to a few months ago when she had helped Shepard as well as the Alliance raid a Cerberus base on Amaranthine. The mission was not smooth at all, and Shepard ended up being badly wounded. Vega had to carry him back to the med bay, and the rest of the team had to clear out a bunch of mercenaries led by none other than the vengeful Eugene Victor Toombs. Toombs was a victim of rather cruel experiments performed by Cerberus years ago, and thankfully, they were able to stop him from setting off a slew of bombs that he had strapped to civilians' bodies.

At the end of the mission, Miranda had approached the Reaper tech detonator to collect it for study, but Ashley Williams stopped her. That day, Miranda obeyed her merely out of respect for Shepard's sake, but today, she wondered what would have happened to her if she had indeed ignored Williams' orders. Would she be indoctrinated? Did Shepard actually touch that detonator? If he did, then that could explain why he was so distant with her after that mission.

The two of them knew that a deeper relationship would not be easy, but they did fully trust one another, and had professed their love.

"Hey, Lawson, are you all there?" Longoria's inquiry stirred Miranda from her train of thought.

Miranda's cool slate eyes met the Broker agent's. "I'm fine. Is there something you need from me?"

"Well, I thought that maybe you'd like to go to Ferris Fields with me. It'll save you some creds paying for a transport, and it'd be good to have some backup, just in case we run into some looters or something."

"I've got business in another part of this country, actually." The Aussie disagreed with a back and forth motion of her head.

"Then I'll back you up. Where're you headed now?"

Miranda pursed her lips together as she assessed the situation. She could certainly take care of herself if need be, but was there anything wrong with accepting a little bit of help? Cautiously, she asked a question, "Are you expecting anything from me in return for this?"

Longoria shook her head 'no'. "I'm already being paid up the wazoo by the Broker for doing this. I just thought I'd lend you a hand, after all, we used to work for the same people, didn't we?"

"Yes, we did, but I left Cerberus, whereas _you_ continued to work for them."

The agent's eyes narrowed. "What're you saying here?"

"Before I put any sort of trust in you, I need to know more about you."

"Look, I only stayed because the Broker ordered me to stay. By the time the Illusive Man had kidnapped Shepard, I thought he went off the deep end." Her tone grew a bit defensive, and she held out her hand as if to push Miranda away from herself.

"Meaning what, exactly?"

"I wanted out, that's what. After I took the Illusive Man back to that base, I got the hell outta there. The Broker called me the next day for a progress report, and I asked him if I could leave my post. He said no-I was too valuable."

Miranda nodded. "It's not easy playing the part of a double agent…I understand where you're coming from. Let's go to my next destination, then. I need to go to Zagreb."

"What for?"

"I need to meet someone there."

Longoria chose wisely not to push the issue since Miranda was being so elusive, and they traveled back to the transport station together. The ride was about half an hour, and neither woman spoke much to one another. Miranda pulled up a set of virtual directions via her omni-tool and led them on a twenty minute brisk walk to the Australian embassy.

Serena eyed the flags suspiciously as they came within the block. "You want me to wait outside or go in with you?"

"Considering the fact that you're armed, you'd better keep your distance."

"Right."

After Miranda made her way inside through the metal detectors, a body scanner, and a biometric recognition camera, she was cleared to enter the lobby. A young man in a gray business suit that was seated at a desk greeted her. One hand remainder underneath the desk. "Miss Lawson, Ambassador Dominic Osoba will meet you on the second floor. You may take either the stairs behind me or if you'd like, there is an elevator that is-"

"The stairs will be sufficient, thank you," Miranda cut him off curtly. This was a long day, and she did not want to waste any more time than was necessary.

The Aussie scaled one of the carpeted twin set of stairs behind the receptionist, and Osoba met her at the top. "Miss Lawson, I am honored by your presence. Thank you for agreeing to meet me here." He bowed his head slightly. "Shall we step into an office here, or would you prefer to take a tour of the facilities? This is a very lovely embassy hall compared to…-" He stopped himself from continuing his idle chatter as he watched her stern body language. "We'll go into an office."

About a minute later, he guided the both of them down a carpeted hallway, and waved his hand over a sensor. The red saturation changed to a green hue, and the hydraulic door opened. After they journeyed inside, it closed immediately after them with a slight hiss. "Please have a seat, Miss Lawson," Osoba offered. He made a gesture to two wooden arm chairs in front of the desk.

She complied, and he surprised her by joining her in the seat adjacent to the one she picked. "What is it that you need from me, Ambassador? You said that Shepard did a favor for you once."

Osoba folded his hands together and set them in his lap. "I have a question for you before I tell you what it is."

"What is it?"

"There was a large sum of money that was donated to the Alliance about a month after the end of the Reaper war. I have been in close contact with Admiral Hackett, and he told me that you and Commander Shepard were…you were very close." He waited for a confirmation in her body language before continuing. When her face made no apparent change, he went on. "There was a message left with the donation, stating that an academy be built in Shepard's honor with the funds. Did that come from you?"

"Are donations now a crime, Ambassador?"

"Not at all, but some things can be traced, even if they are encrypted."

"Agreed. I hope that this isn't the reason why you asked me to come here, Ambassador." Her eyes slightly narrowed, and she crossed one leg over the other.

"No, it isn't. The Alliance Parliament is being re-elected, and the Council is also looking for a human to replace Udina. Understandably, they're being quite selective." He ran a hand over his beard nervously. "During this process, some of the candidates are promising to rid the galaxy of ex-Cerberus operatives because of the coup that happened quite a few months ago on the Citadel. Some of these operatives are not even receiving a fair trial-they just disappear without a trace."

"So I've heard."

"Admiral Hackett tells me that you assisted the Alliance as well as Commander Shepard a great deal with Cerberus' demise. You were also a tower of strength to a unit of Resistance soldiers during the battle for Earth."

"Spare me the eloquence, Ambassador. I like politics about as much as I like wasting my time," Miranda stated coldly.

"Of course. My point is that Admiral Hackett and I would be willing to dismiss your name from all official and unofficial records of Cerberus, but it would be at a cost."

Miranda switched legs and shifted around in her chair uncomfortably. "I'm listening."

"If you would consider establishing another black operations unit for the Alliance…for humanity…as Cerberus was originally intended, both of us would be extremely grateful. I'm not as familiar with Cerberus' dark history as Hackett is, but he did forward me some classified files on the organization. You used to be second-in-command to the Illusive Man, were you not?"

"I was." She paused to gather her thoughts. "Whose idea was this?"

"We came to an agreement about it, Hackett and I."

"Why would you want another organization like Cerberus?"

"The Alliance is a high profile establishment. Surely you know that there are things that must be done in secret to protect a group of nations, or in this case, a number of planets and colonies," Osoba remarked. "In the 20th century, the Americans had the Office of Strategic Services, which later became the CIA. The British had MI6, my own country has its own intelligence, and so on. We need a shield for the Alliance, Miss Lawson, and I would rather that the leadership behind that shield come from you more than anyone else."

"So I'd be given an unofficial pardon as a result of this?"

"Correct."

"Why isn't Hackett here with us in this meeting if this were authenticated by-"

"He is currently on Arcturus Station sorting out the disorganized chaos that is there and apologizes for not meeting with us here." The man gestured with his head towards a small stack of computer servers that were not powered on. "The QECs here were badly damaged during the war. I called you from my own embassy in Dubrovnik, which is likely why you do not recognize this office."

"What exactly did Shepard do for you?"

"My son Bilal served in the Alliance and went to Benning to help extract civilians that Cerberus was kidnapping or gunning down in the streets, but he was killed in action. When his unit returned, none of them would speak with me about what happened. No one in Alliance Command could or would give me a straight answer about him."

"That's unfortunate."

"Yes, and Commander Shepard went there. I suspect that he had a hand in freeing the remaining civilians there from Cerberus, and he was kind enough to bring my son's dog tags back with him as well as tell me where his body was."

"That sounds like something Shepard would do," Miranda agreed. "He's a very selfless man."

"That is my connection to the Commander. I also don't expect an immediate answer to my question today, Miss Lawson, but understand that should you choose to do this, there is nothing to lose here at all. Plausible deniability will of course take its due course, and this is by no means a threat. I am merely extending an offer of friendship."

Miranda decided to change the subject. "Have you heard anything about the construction of the Citadel? Will the human embassy reopen there? That sort of news has not been on the vids."

"It is my understanding that the Citadel's reconstruction began the day after the Reaper war ended, although the initiation was not begun by any of the allied organics to my knowledge."

"You mean that the Reapers were doing this."

"Yes," he nodded and laid his arms on the armrests. "They still are doing the vast majority of it from what I understand."

"Tell me something, Ambassador, does it bother you that the Reapers would suddenly just cease all battle and suddenly turn around to help us?"

"I must admit that when I heard about this and saw those creatures with my own eyes doing the labor that it was difficult to comprehend."

"So do you think that this peace will last forever? What's to stop the Reapers from suddenly turning on organics again?"

"I cannot say," he shook his head 'no'. "This is why Admiral Hackett thinks that we need another Cerberus. He discussed his suspicions and doubts with me about the synthetics' odd behavior."

"What made Hackett contact you?"

"I suppose that my name was found among Councilor Udina's contacts. He did ask for my advocation before the coup, which I completely denied. I did not doubt our allies' support at all-at least…not after the Reaper war started."

Miranda eyed him cautiously. "Is your name in the running for becoming the next human councilor?"

"It was, but I withdrew it. I have no intention of ever leaving my home planet to live out in space," Osoba shook his head. "I cannot bear the thought of being trapped with nowhere to go but the great void."

"Will there be restrictions on this organization should I agree to do this?"

"No. You will be given what you need and for now, no questions will be asked. Hackett and I trust that you will do what is necessary but not go so far as the Illusive Man did. You will act with integrity and a balanced mind, whereas he was completely indoctrinated and had a lust for power."

"So you think that since Shepard trusted me, then you can trust me, too?"

"Yes. Is that a fair supposition to you, Miss Lawson?" Osoba asked.

_Humanity needs someone to support our interests scientifically, militarily, and politically. It's time for us to take the reins here and now should the Asari ever show the same amount of arrogance again. They ran this galaxy up until a few months ago, and it's about time that we show our species' full potential. Anderson was a good councilor, but he lacked the drive that Udina had to get things accomplished. We need someone that's right in the middle of that scale and reinstating Cerberus would be an excellent way to further our interests. But I won't use that name-I don't want the same reputation._

Miranda ceased her reflection and gave him a sincere smile. "As long as the Alliance uses that money as instructed, yes, we have a deal, Ambassador."

"Excellent." Osoba returned her beam and extended his hand toward her. "As soon as I return to my own embassy, I will pass the message to Admiral Hackett. He will begin to set things up for you. Is there a way that he can get in touch with you?"

"Yes, I have a QEC channel at home. Didn't Arcturus Station get demolished by the Reapers? I'm also aware of the Alliance's communication protocols, so I will get in touch with him."

"It is under reconstruction, like the Citadel, and will likely be completed by the end of the month. Might I inquire as to when he should be expecting some communication from you, Miss Lawson?" Osoba queried and leaned forward slightly.

"I estimate that I will give him a call sometime this next week."

"Are there any particular names that you have in mind for this organization? Or would you rather utilize Cerberus?"

Miranda shook her head 'no'. "Cerberus will definitely _not_ be used. There is one word that I've thought of using." She ran her index finger across the bottom of her lip as she pondered the asked question.

"Tell me."

"Hyrde." The very word was Norwegian and meant "shepard", but there was no way that Miranda would tell him that.

"Tell me, Miss Lawson, did the thought ever occur to you one day that you would lead Cerberus if something fatal ever happened to the Illusive Man?"

She shrugged. "I can't say that it didn't cross my mind. We had contingency plans in place if that event did occur, and there will also be one implemented should something happen to the…-" Miranda stopped herself from saying much more. She did not want to reveal the fact that she had no intention of leading Hydre. She had a much better candidate in mind for the job.

"Yes?"

"Should something happen to the person in charge," she finished.

Osoba's eyebrows furrowed when he heard her say that but did not push her any further. He gave her a forced smile instead. "You have my loyalty and blessing, Miss Lawson. So far as I know, you don't exist any longer."

Miranda arose from her chair. "I appreciate the chance to forward humanity's interests once more, Ambassador Osoba. Hyrde considers you an advocate and should you ever decide to pursue an office of election, we will endorse you."

"One more thing, Miss Lawson." His fake smile disappeared, and a grim, dark expression fell upon his face. "My condolences for your loss. Commander Shepard was…he was a hero for all of us. I hope that the other species will honor his memory."

_He is not dead. He can't be. He just can't._

Even though she vehemently disagreed with Osoba, the Aussie politely acknowledged his sympathy. "Thank you."

When Miranda journeyed back outside the embassy, she found Longoria leaning up against a wall. "So, shall we head to Ferris Fields?" Longoria wondered.

"No. Not yet. I am interested in the technology that you'll be bringing back, but I'm sure that I'll find out about it eventually."

The Broker agent gave her a hard stare. "What makes you say that, Lawson?"

"How much does the Shadow Broker pay you?"

"Depends on the nature of the job."

"What if I offered you a flat fee regardless? And a paid vacation?"

"I'd ask what you've been huffing," Longoria joked.

"Finish your job off-world, Longoria, and give me a call on this channel." Miranda switched on her omni-tool, hurriedly typed in an address, and sent the data to the Broker agent's.

Serena's expression turned into bewilderment. "How did you get my omni-tool's-"

Miranda shrugged. "Your encryption firewalls are out of date. While you were waiting to accept my upload, I put a piggyback virus onto it so that I could tap into your address. Before you start to worry, relax…it's only temporary. The bug will be gone from your system in less than twenty-four hours. Now, tell me, Serena, does the Shadow Broker's network truly have the best security in the galaxy?"

She scratched the back of her head. "Well, up to now, I thought that we did."

"Do you think that the Broker would mind if you quit?"

"I'm not sure that he'd like it."

"Perhaps the Broker isn't a completely unreasonable person."

"Why would you think that?"

"Just a guess. I've been wrong before, but it's not often." Miranda shrugged once more and walked towards the curb to flag down a taxi. "Think about my offer when you get back.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Zagreb, Croatia

The next morning, 0752h

Miranda spent a great deal of the night tossing and turning in her hotel bed. Sleep was becoming more and more difficult these days; she was far too anxious about her search for Shepard, Alan's sickness, and the most recent addition to her life…Hyrde. She found the night all the more lonely without Shepard's arms around her.

Honestly, it did feel a little bit silly. She spent the majority of the past thirty plus years of her life without someone sleeping next to her. The one night stands that she participated in left her empty and dissatisfied. True, some of them were assignments from Cerberus and some of them had been to satisfy a hedonistic whim; however, the first man she ever truly felt comfortable sleeping next to for the entire evening was only Shepard.

Miranda wiped the sleep away from her eyes, swung her perfectly shaped legs over the side of the bed, and trudged into the bathroom. "Tungsten, lights at half intensity," she commanded the room's VI in a slightly cracked voice.

The system obeyed her, and she waved a hand in front of the shower stall's faucet. A gentle fall of droplets followed her movements, which soon turned into a stream; she stripped herself from her robe, and let it fall carelessly onto the floor. The article of clothing didn't belong to her, and although the cotton felt heavenly on her skin, she was used to silk…or Shepard's embrace.

_Damnit, I can't stop thinking about him. Why?_

* * *

As Miranda washed away the impurities from her creamy skin and raven hair, her mind traveled back to the first time that she had ever slept next to him for the entire night.

Shepard and Miranda both lay spent and totally exhausted. Three times. The last had been the best in her opinion; the first two sessions were frantic and aggressive. Neither of them could keep their eyes off of one another throughout the whole day, and actually, she was quite upset with a chauvinistic remark he made at lunch regarding females. He had not been directly speaking to her but rather Engineer Donnelly; her superb hearing picked it right up from across the mess hall while Mess Sgt. Gardner was piling the food nearly a kilometer high onto her tray.

She chose to sit on the opposite end of the table that day, and from that moment on, she gave him vicious glares every time he made eye contact with her, hoping that he'd get the message. Her voice remained as cold as a polar ice cap whenever they spoke with one another on the intercom during the day. Shepard seemed to enjoy making his witty quips as usual; he paid her no mind. As a matter of fact, his innuendos became worse during the day, and she actually did lose her temper for a quarter of a second.

It was during that moment…that single instant…she knew-he was teasing her purposely to see what the result of their verbal foreplay would be. Knowing that fact alone drove her completely insane, realizing that she couldn't control him completely, and hours later, about two seconds after she stepped into his office to bring him a mug of coffee, they both released their passion.

Two minutes after their third coupling, Miranda tried to stifle a yawn but failed miserably. He had a gentle baritone chuckle, rich but not powerful, and he turned on his side to face her. "What the hell happened to that coffee mug, anyway?" he wondered and reached for her hand.

Her fingers evaded his, and she rotated herself away from him. "It's lying around your desk in a hundred pieces after you threw it down."

"Did I? Huh. Can't remember-details are a bit fuzzy."

"Not surprising."

Once again, he reached for her, but this time, she arose and wrapped the bed's duvet around herself. "What time is it? I don't think that it's time to get up quite yet, is it?"

"It's probably about midnight or so."

"Midnight? Huh," he laughed at himself. "I think that that was the first time I ever ordered my XO to bring me a cup of coffee."

"It wasn't completely irrational of you. Honestly, I'm a bit amazed you didn't call me to come in any earlier than you did, Commander," she said with a smirk and another wink that nearly gave him goosebumps.

He shoved his nervousness aside and gave her a cocky leer. "Well, the options were either doing that or to break into your office. Figured that you wouldn't be too keen on that happening, and I didn't want the rest of the crew to get suspicious, now, did I? EDI does have the helm now, but she hears everything, and I swear that ever since Joker removed her shackles, they've started to gossip about us."

Miranda shook her head. "They probably _do_ know. I gave Tali a rather poor excuse as to why I needed the engine room cleared. Kasumi is also prone to instigate rumors, and she's become a bit more friendly with everyone, from what I've seen."

Shepard sat up in the bed and leaned against the headboard. "So uh…"

"Yes?"

He glanced uneasily at her and then back to the disheveled sheets next to himself. "Is there a reason why you…I mean…is there something bothering you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Aren't you tired?"

Miranda sat down on the chair beside the bed. "Well…after all that…I suppose so."

"Then why don't you come over here?" Shepard extended his arm and hand towards her. "I need you."

Words failed her right this instant. Neither of them had spent the whole night with one another, and she had a feeling that this day would come soon but dreaded it with a twinge of apprehension. She crossed one leg over the other.

"I…uh…Shepard, I…-"

"Come here." It was not an order; it was a request. He stated it firmly, and when she shifted around on the seat uncomfortably, he let his hand fall to his side. "What's the matter, Miranda?"

"I'm not sure that I want to-"

"Have my arms around you?"

"No!" Her immediate response almost startled him as much as when he had accused her of jealousy a while ago, just before he initiated their first kiss. "I…I've just never…-"

"You don't seem to mind where my hands go while we're rolling in the hay, Ms. Lawson."

_Damnit, wipe that smirk off of your mug, you bastard. I'm trying to sort out my…how I feel about you right now_, she thought.

He dismissed his playful tone instantly when he noticed that she did not return his comment with an eye rolling or even a smile. "You worried that I'm gonna crush you?"

"No, of course not," she replied neutrally and shook her head. A short exhale through her nose followed soon afterward.

"Worried that I snore?"

"Not really."

"Well, you've got biotics, so that debunks the man versus woman strength thing that used to separate our sexes so long ago…why won't you tell me the truth, Miranda?"

She ran an embarrassed hand over her face and sighed. "I've never…damnit, this is so hard…"

Shepard pushed the sheets off of himself and got down onto his knees beside her. "Does this help?"

"Not particularly."

Shepard reached for her hand again, and this time she let him have it. He trailed the pads of his fingers over the back lightly, firmly seized it, and brought his head down to kiss the skin there. "How about now, love?"

_Love? What happened to Ms. Lawson or Miranda?_

"What're you doing?" she inquired suspiciously.

"Trying to figure out why such an intoxicatingly gorgeous woman like yourself wouldn't want to spend the rest of the evening with a hopeless bastard like myself." His lips pulled away at her flesh again.

"I think I'm…well…" Miranda sighed again and looked away. "Shepard, please stop, this is making me feel uncomfortable."

He released her hand right away and nodded. "Okay, I get it. So this is hard for you. Do you have any idea of what this is doing to me right now?"

She made eye contact with him briefly, shrugged, and stared at the floor.

"I don't like it."

Miranda's head snapped up, and her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

Shepard sighed, arose, and slid a pair of boxers over himself. "It means exactly what I said. Either you want me to hold you after we have sex or you don't."

She bristled at his remark. "This is ridiculous."

"Is it?" he argued and gave her a glare. "Don't circumvent the issue, Miranda. It scares the hell out of you, I can see that. And didn't we talk about this already?"

"Talk about what?"

"That you're afraid of caring about somebody else other than your sister."

"I wouldn't drag my sister into this discussion if I were you, Shepard." Her tone lowered in pitch.

"Fine," Shepard soughed, stomped up the stairs, and slammed his left fist into the glass screen that used to serve as a place to view holos. He had not charged up his biotics at all, and the sudden loud noise made Miranda jump out of her seat.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" she yelled, finally losing her cool.

"I'm glad you're so concerned about it now," he grunted and took a look at his now bleeding hand.

EDI's blue avatar immediately activated itself. "Shepard, why are you hurt? Should I alert Dr. Chakwas? Why is the holo screen in pieces all over your cabin?"

"No, EDI," Miranda's voice called from across the room. "Shepard will be fine. I'll attend to his medical needs." She quickly found her boots as well as her clothes near the other side of the bed on the floor, put them on, and climbed the stairs. Without another word, she instantly went for the first aid kit in the bathroom. "Wash your hand off, Shepard."

He clutched himself by the wrist and exhaled slowly. "Don't think…that I…-"

"Fine, I'll do it. Come on, walk towards me. I know you can at least do that." Miranda gestured with her hand towards herself and told the faucet that she wanted hot water as she waited for him to trudge over to the bathroom.

When he made it, he held his hand obediently underneath the water while she lathered it up with soap and checked it for shards of glass. Miranda next opened up the first aid kit, took out a pair of tweezers, and told the water to stop. "That was completely childish, Shepard. I don't understand why you-"

"Maybe if I did it with the other hand, you'd finally get the whole picture," he grumbled and winced as she led him by the arm down the stairs. Shepard brought the kit with him in his other hand.

"Unlikely, so don't even think about trying it." She dried his hand off with a towel that was lying on the couch and searched his skin thoroughly with her omni-tool's flashlight for whatever she had previously missed.

"You know, you just drive me crazy some days, Miranda."

"The feeling's mutual, as was evidenced by our previous engagements."

He sighed. "I wish you'd stop trying to analyze things every second and just relax."

"If I did that, then-"

"I wouldn't have smashed my goddamned hand into the holo screen."

Miranda plucked the tiny pieces of glass out from his appendage. "Looks like you'll need some stitches here. I can't do that for you right now, and I'm sure you'd rather not be seen in the dead of night with your XO traveling down to the med bay."

"So what does my second medical officer suggest?" Shepard set the kit onto the table next to a pair of wine glasses.

"I'll butterfly your cuts and wrap your hand up in gauze for the moment. Now, can you hold your hand up, or do you need to rest it for a bit?"

He moaned. "How much longer are you gonna be?"

"I don't know, which is why I asked you the question. I thought I'd give you the option of keeping it down while I look for some things in the kit."

Shepard lowered his hand and bit his lip. "All right. Since you're so good at multi-tasking, I might as well just lay it on you right now."

"And what would that be?" Her eyes were in the box now as she rummaged through the various bandages, packets of alcohol wipes, and cotton balls.

"Miranda, have you ever spent the night with somebody after having sex?"

She tossed a few alcohol packets onto the table and inspected a roll of medical gauze carefully. "No. That's what I was trying to tell you earlier."

"Guess this is what you'd call our first breakthrough, isn't it?" he joked.

Miranda rolled her eyes. "You ass." She grabbed his wounded paw, ripped open a package, pulled out a wipe, and dabbed it onto his cuts.

He howled painfully and stomped his foot onto the floor while she held him. "Christ, that stings, Miranda!"

"I'm sorry." For the first time, there was complete silence in between the two of them as she worked. After Miranda started to apply the gauze, she finally spoke again. "I suppose I should've told you, but…well…when it's a spur of the moment decision that doesn't involve logic…"

"I know, I know," he said with a nod. "Guess my doing this was just a way for me to vent how I felt. You can compartmentalize just about everything, whereas I…I kind of drop the ball in that department."

"I'm not asking you to change, Shepard…I know better than that. Just…I need-"

"Some comfort, and that's all I want to give you, Miranda. Didn't your father ever hold you?"

She closed the first aid kit back up and licked her lips nervously. "Not very often, and my nanny told me later on that it never happened while I…well, before I could walk."

"So I can hold you while we're here on the couch and while we're making love, but I can't afterward? For someone who's so dedicated to science, that just doesn't make any sense. What kind of logic is that, Miranda?"

Miranda shrugged. "Flawed, I guess." She then looked away at the Prothean sphere that now lay on his desk. "Guess I'm not so…not so perfect as you thought."

He gently turned her head back towards his with his good hand. "Remember what I said in the elevator when we were going to see your sister off?"

"That even with all my upgrades that I'm still human, just like everyone else."

"Yeah, and I'll be damned if that doesn't turn me on more than ever, Miranda. I don't want a Stepford wife, some plain old cardboard cutout who yells and screams that I'm king of the world." Shepard stroked her cheek. "I'm not gonna cash in my chips, no matter how bad the odds look. And if that means spending time trying to unravel the mysterious female psyche inside of you, then bring it on, woman."

Not another half a second passed before his lips joined hers again. The kiss was not fiery but rather slow as they explored one another's flesh. Shepard suddenly broke the kiss as she was about to increase her fervor, stood, and escorted her over towards the bed. "I don't think I've got a fourth shot to fire, so to speak, but all I'm asking is that you stop thinking about it. Just…let yourself be swept up in the moment."

She let go of his hand and reached for the straps on her boots. "I'm afraid that-"

"I know. But I promise that I'll be here for you all night, no matter what."

The hint of a smile spread across her lips, and she gave him a minuscule nod. "All right, Shepard, I'll stay."

"Good. Now hurry up and strip before I get cold, woman." He picked up the duvet from the floor and threw it haphazardly onto the bed.

"Was that an order to your XO or to your lover, Commander Shepard?" she asked as she proceeded to remove her clothing slowly.

Shepard turned back around. She had just removed her second boot and now slid the zipper down the side of her outfit in a tantalizing fashion; his hand covered hers. "I don't intend to strip an insubordinate officer of her rank…but I might just have to ruin her-damn this thing! What the hell is it caught on?"

For the first time in years, Miranda gave an exuberant laugh. He was precisely the sort of man she needed right now, perhaps as long as she lived.

* * *

After Miranda finished her shower, she received an incoming call from Oriana on her omni-tool. "Ori, how're things down under?"

"Just fine. Alan is acting about as normally as a kid can be. By the way, Miranda, why does he need to go see the doctor again? I thought you said that his checkup went well."

"It did." Miranda did not mention Alan's illness to her sister; no one needed to know about this now, except for herself and the doctor. "We're just going back for a final evaluation and follow-up."

"Right. So, how did your meetings go?"

"They went well, and I know exactly where Dr. Cole is thanks to the Shadow Broker. After I take Alan for his next appointment, I need to make some preparations for my trip to Ferris Fields. Would you be adverse to taking him out to an animal shelter and letting him pick out a dog?"

Oriana's face wrinkled. "Why don't you want to go with him?"

"I said that I've got some things to do, Ori. It's not that I don't want to go with him, I just assumed that you'd be available, and…do you have plans?"

She shrugged. "No, it'd just be nice to have a social life again. I made friends with a few people on the Benjamin Davis while I was there, and one of them lives in Perth. I was thinking that I could go visit her. The damage wasn't as bad in Perth as it was in Melbourne."

"Let's make a deal. While I take Alan to the doctor's, you go visit your friend. Then when I come back, you take Alan to get the dog." Miranda observed Oriana's face turn into a complete pout. "Is it really that much to ask, Ori, after everything I've done for you all these years?"

Oriana crossed her arms over her chest. "Right. Go ahead and throw that back into my face, 'Randa, like that's gonna change my mind."

A knock came to Miranda's door, and a voice called from behind it to tell her that it was room service with her breakfast. "Come in," she told them after waving a hand at the electronic lock. She thought about the situation for a good few seconds. "Would you like to come with me to Ferris Fields? You might find an ExoGeni rep there, and we'll bring Alan with us."

"Yeah, I guess that sounds fine. But what are we gonna do about the day after tomorrow?"

Miranda watched the server uncover the dishes and pour the coffee from a carafe. "I'll stay until tonight in Croatia to make the travel plans, and I'll be home tomorrow."

"What time?"

"I'll call you to let you know. Now, how are things going with the repairs of the manor?"

"The geth are pretty much done, 'Randa, except for the landscaping. They said that they'll upload themselves to the servers before they leave, and you can dispose of their platforms however you'd like. I'm not sure what the hell that means, but that's what they told me this morning."

"So none of them plan to stay after they finish?"

"It doesn't sound like it, no. Wanna talk to one of them? I think Orion's not too far away."

_Not if I can help it. Being away for the past two days from those damned synthetics has been a bit of a relief. I don't see how any of them would ever fit into an organic society. _

"No," Miranda stated and shook her head. "If they leave, then that's fine with me. It was kind of them to help us out, and if they haven't made any more progress locating Shepard, then we don't need them."

"Excuse me, Miss, but will you be requiring anything more?" Miranda's visitor inquired expectantly. The Aussie dismissed him silently with her hand as if he were a pestilence and gave her sister her full attention once more. The man left and muttered beneath his breath about how much he despised his life.

About half an hour later after Miranda finished her breakfast, she wheeled the tray outside the room and took the elevator down to the hotel lobby. A pair of marauders stood in front an ATM kiosk; one was doing some programming with a data pad, and the other watched the screen. The kiosk's holo screen had been malfunctioning yesterday, and today, the Reapers were calibrating it to perfection. Neither paid her any mind when she walked by, but there was one asari dressed in commando leathers who came through the entrance that made a gesture towards her with her hand.

It was very slight at first, and Miranda glanced around herself to see if there could be anyone else that the asari was trying to attract, but there was no one. The asari made a much larger signal this time, and Miranda took the hint. "You are Miranda Lawson," the alien stated.

"I'm at a loss as to who you are." Miranda eyed her suspiciously.

"My name does not matter to you; I am only a vessel with which another voice wishes to use."

"Could you be a tad less vague, please?"

"I bring a message to you from someone who loves you very much. Would you care to hear it?"

Miranda shrugged her shoulders. "Why can't I hear this message directly from the person himself?"

"I cannot answer that question, Ms. Lawson, but I can tell you what has been testified to me."

"From whom?"

"Let me give you the message, and then I will tell you how it was relayed to me."

"I suppose I've got some time now. We don't have to go anywhere to hear this message, do we?"

"No, I can give it to you here if you'd like."

The Aussie checked her surroundings; the lobby was full of activity. The hustle and bustle did not make her nervous at all; the people who were inactive but overtly curious did. In light of that contingency, she pointed behind herself to the business centre. "Let's go in here for the moment."

The asari nodded and followed Miranda. There were of course cameras in there, but just before she went in, she activated a program on her omni-tool that would scramble both the audio and visual signals that were typically used on closed circuit systems. It sent a wireless command signal to the camera's receiver to briefly slow down the data packets being sent and confuse the frame rate as well as introduce pink noise through the audio channel.

"Are you ready to receive the message now?" the asari wondered.

"I guess. You don't have to meld with me, do you?"

"No. My mind has already been touched by others." She closed her eyes briefly, and two seconds later, she reopened them. The pupils were completely gone, and her irises transmogrified into pearly white ovals. "I know that you're looking for me, Miranda. I'm afraid where I go you cannot follow, love. Please don't despair and give up your inspiration or dreams. You promised me that you'd never give up; go forward with hope, babe."

_Shepard and I never shared a conversation like that. It sounds like something he might possibly say, but…_

"You had a meeting very recently with someone important to our species. Whatever he or she asked of you, I beg of you to do this, please. There is no salvation or redemption for me now; I'm truly happy where I am, Miri, and I wish you'd be able to find some without me being physically there."

The asari was about to go on, but Miranda cleared her throat. "I think I've heard enough, thank you," she interrupted her. "Where did you get this message?"

"A former member of the Rachni race touched my mind with its thoughts, and through its song, I heard this human male voice. It was rich and low, very calming. I know that I've heard it somewhere before but cannot place the man's name."

"And where exactly did these rachni sing to you?" Miranda asked her with a piercing stare.

"I was traveling from London up to the country of Scotland. That was my destination; I hear that the countryside is exquisite, romantic, and breathtaking. While I was on my journey, I was stopped by two rachni. One of them put me into a deep sleep while the other sang to me."

"Could you find either of these creatures again?"

"No, I could not. The rachni do not have long lifespans, I'm afraid. The information about their course, direction, and destination is unknown to me."

"I see. Thank you for delivering your message." Miranda was about to activate her omni-tool and restore the surveillance back to normal until the asari laid a hand on her forearm.

"Wait, Miss Lawson. In the event that I do find another member of the rachni race, it is possible perhaps to get some correspondence back to the person who sent this communication to you. Would you like to pass along a message? Was this person your bond mate?"

The Aussie's stare grew icy. "I don't see how this is any affair of yours. You accomplished your mission, and let's leave it at that."

"Very well. I wish you a splendid day." The asari bowed her head a tad and left the business centre without another word.

_The second half of that message was not Shepard. There's no way in hell that he wouldn't want to be with me. Either he was lying to me before he left me in London or he just lied to me now through that asari. I've got to find out who fired that Crucible. Was it Anderson or was it Shepard? Neither of them were accounted for in London after the blast. I've also got to find out how that control signal works and more about the designs of the Crucible itself-Dr. Cole is the only person who'd have a clue about this whole mystery._

While Miranda meandered her way through some of the alleys in Zagreb and pondered her options, an incoming call came from her omni-tool. The signal was scrambled and encrypted on a channel she did not recognize; it could not have been coming from Oriana. Cautiously, Miranda accepted the call.

Liara T'Soni's holographic face gave her a courteous nod with a greeting. "Miranda, it's good to see you. I apologize for my earlier behavior."

"Not a problem. You had to keep up appearances."

"I gather that you made an offer to one of my agents yesterday."

Miranda rolled her head around in a circle to slowly stretch her aching muscles. _Damn. So much for that brilliant idea._

"I might have done such a thing."

"Why would you make an offer to Agent Longoria for becoming an agent of yours?"

"Let's just say that I might have a hand in some interests that will forward the advancement of the human race again."

"Need I remind you what happened to the last organization that claimed to do so?"

"You and I were both present for its destruction, T'Soni. Do you not also have a hand in clandestine affairs for all sorts of peoples? Who keeps you in check?"

Liara fell silent as she thought about Miranda's last point. About half a minute later, she spoke. "I have a proposal for you, Miranda. Agent Longoria can work for you as long as she keeps working for me, and I will share the secrets of the artifacts that she will uncover. That way, you can keep an eye on me, and I can keep an eye on you."

"I need some time before I can give you an answer," Miranda admitted. "It does interest me…and I do recall a mention of sharing mutual secrets while we conversed a few months ago on the Citadel. Give me two days to think it over, and I'll have an answer for you."

"Thank you, Miranda. I wish you well on your trip. From what I've heard, Dr. Cole is one of the most brilliant humans that worked on the Crucible project."

Miranda bit her lip anxiously. _I suppose an offer like that is difficult to pass up. I would gain a very experienced and mostly loyal agent as well as some intelligence regarding new technology, which could likely further the human race. On the other hand, knowingly accepting a spy into the ranks is almost idiotic. She could turn on me at any time, and who's to say that she didn't give extremely valuable information about Cerberus away before? Hundreds of operatives might be dead because of her duplicity. I think I can trust T'Soni, but can I trust Longoria?_

__*A/N*-I hope that this was worth the long wait for everyone. Some new commitments have come up in life that require my attention, so writing has to take a back seat so to speak. Happy reading to everything, thank you in advance for your reviews. They do brighten my day. I'd also like to remind everyone who likes my ME stuff to take a look at my original science fiction/spy thriller novel called "The Edge of Obliteration". The plot has to do with a what if situation. What if someone found the cure for cancer? What would happen fifty plus years in the future? There's a free preview available on Amazon, I believe. It's available in e-book format on Amazon dot com as well as Barnes and Noble and in paperback through both vendors. You can also find it on Trafford's website, though the price is likely higher since it is my publisher.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Orbit of New Canton, Theta Rho Expanse, Sigma Cluster

Three days later, 1012h

The transport VI announced that it would soon be breaking out of sub-light travel, and that all passengers who wished to make their departure should prepare themselves for the landing, which would be in approximately ten minutes. A few passengers groaned and mumbled that it was ridiculous that the space traffic controllers couldn't keep up with the traffic, but Miranda paid them no mind. It was almost as if everyone had forgotten about the war that happened about three months ago. Ignorance and complacency returned to the same level that it had been. Sometimes, Miranda almost wished that the Reapers had been selective about their harvesting instead of just making thralls out of everyone. There were some people who just did not deserve to add to the chaos and anarchy that was in the galaxy.

Alan sat next to her with his seatbelt on and kicked his feet restlessly when he heard the announcement. She turned towards him and gave him a quick smile. "I know you want to leave, but it's not our stop yet. We'll be getting off at the next planet."

His brow furrowed, and he tried to twist his body outside the belt, but the mass effect field remained firmly in place. "Why do we have to wait so long, Ms. Lawson?"

"There are other people here who need to visit or go home to New Canton. Not everyone here wants to visit Ferris Fields."

"So you want to see somebody you worked with? Are we gonna see a guy or a girl?"

"A man and a woman, actually."

"Do you think that they'll like Angie?"

"I'm sure that they will. My colleague Jacob said that he had a dog when he grew up, so it's very likely that he'll be more than happy to see her." Miranda glanced across the transport's aisle at Oriana and the mechanical companion sitting next to her that Alan named Angie. Alan could not make up his mind which dog he liked best, so the decision to get an organic dog at the shelter became more complex. Oriana went with him but called Miranda for her permission.

The sheer number of tests, shots, and waiting period before they could take possession of the dog was too long; besides, it would have bogged down Miranda's life with paperwork that she didn't need.

It did disappoint Alan at first when Oriana told him about Miranda's decision. Getting a real dog wouldn't work out for them, but it quickly disappeared after she explained the fact that he could have a mech dog right now instead. They ended up going to a retail outlet that was adjacent to the animal shelter, and the Hahne Kedar merchant was all too happy to rid herself of her surplus FENRIS mechs for a bargain price. The saleswoman did tell her that there would probably be a few glitches upon the FENRIS' boot up and execution, so Oriana reported this to her sister immediately after they came home.

Miranda had a feeling that there was more to the problem. Not only did the FENRIS mech boot up in attack mode, the synthetic dog's bark also started to loop at an extremely loud volume after she brought it back to her father's mansion. Rather than take it back, she hit the robotic dog with an EMP before it could hurt anyone, and then later rewrote the program with her omni-tool with a free patch created by Hahne Kedar that was available on the extranet.

Miranda could not deny the strange tingles that sailed down the back of her spine when she heard Alan's final decision when it came to naming the dog yesterday. _Why would he call the dog Angie? His mother's name was Regina according to the necklace I found on her body. _

She dismissed the question then but now it came back to haunt her. "Alan?"

"Yeah?" His attention had gone to the window but now came back to her.

"Did you have any sisters, aunts, or cousins with the name Angie?"

"Nope."

"How about any friends at school?"

"Uh-un," he shook his head 'no'.

Miranda wanted to ask him another question, but the transport broke through New Canton's atmosphere. About twenty seconds later, it landed promptly at a station. Miranda's omni-tool began to illuminate as she received an incoming call, and she made a gesture to Oriana to come closer. Oriana slid over in her seat. "What's up, 'Randa?"

"I need to take this. It could be Jacob or Dr. Cole," Miranda told her as she deactivated her seatbelt.

Alan saw her and began to pull against his; he became all the more frustrated when it wouldn't move. He even attempted to make the same motions as she did, but it was to no avail. "I'm stuck," he lamented. "Why can't I get up?"

"Because you're under the age of 12; remember that I explained some of the transport's rules to you after we came aboard?"

"Yeah, like he'd remember all those. I've got an idea," Oriana said and turned the dog on. Within five seconds, it happily waddled over to Alan and wagged its synthetic tail.

Miranda arose from her seat and gave her a smile. "I'll only be a few minutes. Thanks, Ori."

The Aussie nearly ran into a few people but paid them no mind as she made her way towards the aft section of the transport where only the attendants were. On any other day, she might have given them a backward glance and a half-hearted apology, but today was different. Today was the day when she could possibly get some answers. One of the stewardesses was a human female, and the other was an asari. The human said nothing to her and continued her work, which involved unloading the food waste bins to a truck that was outside the transport. The asari, however, noticed Miranda and held up a hand. "Ma'am, I'm afraid we're rather busy back here and can't be disturbed right now."

"I've got to answer this. I don't give a damn about the two of you," she snapped back coldly and activated her omni-tool finally.

A static holo of Shepard in his N7 armor appeared, and music began to play from the omni-tool's speakers. It was oddly familiar-the melody was a haunting tune with a Latin flavor. Underneath Shepard's image came some words that practically made her gasp. "Remember this song? I didn't know what any of the words meant at the time, but now I do. Listen, my love…and know that I think of you daily."

The song was named "Un Dia Llegara" by the artist Josh Groban.

_The leaves will be cascading down, and my soul you'll be touching._

_ You will be coming to me after so much loneliness._

_ I'll find my place in you._

_ When the city falls asleep and says goodbye to the sun,_

_ I'll listen to the silence of my heart,_

_ And the storm will end in my arms._

_It's worth the pain waiting for your love._

_ One day it will arrive._

_ I'll find._

_ I'll listen to the silence of my heart, and the storm will end in your arms._

_ It's worth the pain waiting for your love._

_ There will be silence._

_ All my life I'll wait for your love_

_ I know one day…your love will come to me."_

Miranda closed her eyes as she listened to the final tender but bitter tone of the acoustic guitar finish the song and held back a deluge of tears. The song was but one that Shepard had played on their "date" on the Citadel, which happened a few months ago at the Spectre gun range. At first, he had been exceptionally annoying and cocky. After assessing her body language, he immediately dropped the loftiness, traded it for humility, and practically swept her off of her feet with a set of utterly romantic ballads. Her selective but eidetic memory recalled how his strong and firm chest pressed into her back, their joined hands that came together upon the carnifex pistol, and the way his breath caressed her ear while the song played. The feeling presently gave her goosebumps and sent a blush to her cheeks.

Miranda first simply tried to open her side of the coms but could not get through. It was being sent through a scrambled and encrypted channel; she tried to send her piggyback program to seize control over the signal, but it was no use. One more sentence crawled up from beneath Shepard's holo. _Still doubt it's me, my love?_

"What the hell?" Miranda murmured aloud. "Shepard, I don't know if you can hear me, but-"

"Your search is futile, Miranda Lawson," a deep and ominous voice interrupted her. "Life is surviving in this galaxy, and you must continue on with yours. His life is inconsequential."

"Excuse me?" Her tone became acerbic.

"You are being selfish, and sacrifices must be made for us. There must be payment; there must be tribute for what we have done."

"Damnit, who the hell are you?!"

The communication channel closed, and the asari attendant tapped her on the arm. "Ma'am, would you please take your seat? The passengers who will be accompanying us to Ferris Fields have already taken their places."

_Already? How long was that song?_ she wondered.

As if the asari could read Miranda's mind, she made a motion towards the rest of the crowd, who was seated patiently waiting for the pilot to finish his speech and take off. Somewhat embarrassed that so much time had passed, Miranda acknowledged her with the slight nodding of her head and strolled back to her seat. Thankfully, her mind began to clear as soon as she sat back down.

"You were gone a long time," Alan told her as she put her seatbelt back on. "Was it important?"

"Hmm?" Miranda briefly entered the majestic and wonderful place that was designated as "cloud nine" and completely disregarded the rest of her surroundings.

Alan's voice cut through her thoughts. _"_Somebody talked to you, right?"

"Yes. It was important, you're right. Someone I care about very much sent me a message reminding me to not give up hope." _And I knew I was right. The Reapers are up to something…or…maybe the Reapers aren't controlling him. I don't know, damnit, and it's killing me!_

"Oh. What's hope mean? That's like…a wish, yeah?"

"I've often heard it described as being faith…believing in things we can't necessarily see or well…in a person."

Alan shrugged. "Like God?"

Miranda bit her lip. She didn't expect to be debating this with a child, nor did she want to drag religion into this discussion. "I'm not sure of that, Alan, but I wanted to ask you something."

"What?"

"Have you ever left Earth before?"

"Nope."

"Did you ever hear about or meet a man named Commander Shepard?"

Alan's eyes met hers, and his face brightened. "Yeah, he's gonna save us all, or at least, that's what I heard my mom say. I don't really know him, though-just saw him in the vids. Do you know him?"

Miranda's tongue flickered itself over the top of her lips as she considered her answer. Lying to him wouldn't be right, besides, why would he care much about the details of their relationship?

"Why do you always take so long to answer me, Ms. Lawson?" Alan candidly inquired and shifted around in his seat.

"Adults have complicated lives, Alan. I'm trying to figure out how to describe my relationship with Shepard to you."

"Okay, well, I was just wondering if you knew him or not. That would have been the best thing ever." He turned his attention away from her to the window beside him.

"I did know him, Alan."

The boy's head whipped back towards her instantly. "Really?!" His excitement reminded her of the time when she and Niket first discovered the true potential of her biotic powers. The expression on Niket's face was reminiscent of the one that was currently on Alan's. "Was that him talking to you?"

Miranda bit down hard on the inside of her cheek and regained her composure. "Yes, it was." _That first message had to have been from him. No one else could have known about that song and sent it to me purposely in that way. The rest of it, though..._

"Where is he?"

"I don't know, Alan. That's why I…we…are going to go see Mr. Taylor and Dr. Cole. I think she can help me find Shepard."

"Doesn't he want to see you? You're friends, aren't you?"

"We are, but…something happened to him while he was on Earth. I'm not sure where he is, but I'm hoping that Dr. Cole will be able to shed some light on that matter."

"Is she smart?"

"Yes, very much so."

"I wanna meet Commander Shepard, too."

"We have to be patient-it's not going to be an easy task, Alan."

He lost interest in Miranda and became distracted by another ship outside his window that was nearby their transport. Its orbit was remarkably close, and two seconds later, it disappeared into an FTL jump.

New Bethlehem, Ferris Fields, Theta Rho Expanse, Sigma Cluster

Transport Station, 1217h

The three travelers shuffled outside of the transport along with Angie, who calmly followed Alan at his side. Miranda knew that although Jacob had been trained by the Alliance to arrive in a timely fashion, it was not always the case. He sometimes came too early to a rendezvous and sometimes would arrive too late. It was one of the trivial things that brought their relationship to a crashing halt.

If there was ever one policy that Miranda did actually keep from her father, it was that time is money. Showing up late or too early was a faux pas. They were slightly early from their prognosticated arrival, which is why she was not surprised to see that Jacob was absent; in fact, they were ten minutes early.

"'Randa, would you mind if I went to find the ExoGeni bureau that's supposed to be here? The agent that's here asked me to contact with her when I got here, and she just sent me a message giving me directions," Oriana wondered.

"How long will you be?" Miranda asked.

"I'm not sure; she said that the interviewing process usually takes about twenty minutes, but then she also wanted to give me a tour of the city and the office as well."

"No, go ahead, Ori. I'm glad that you've found yourself a possible job here. From the look of it, this place needs lots of restructure." She glanced out a window; the colony's appearance was that of the typical breadbasket state in the US. There were several rows of corn stalks as far as her eyes could see, and there were only a few pre-fabrication units in the distance. _I wonder if this is what Mindoir looked like. Shepard didn't ask me to come down to the planet when he visited it last year._

About one minute later after Miranda, Alan, and the mech dog wandered towards the curb, a car pulled up towards them. The passenger door slid open much like a railway boxcar from centuries before, and Jacob gave Miranda a business-like nod for a greeting. "Hey, long time no see, Miranda. Not much luggage as usual, huh? Want me to pop the trunk?" He motioned to the briefcase she held in her hand.

"I'd rather carry it, Jacob." After a moment of uneasy silence, she continued the conversation. "Well…your punctuality has certainly improved for the better." She nudged Alan forward, who was a bit reluctant to step towards the car. "It's all right, Alan, this is Jacob."

He glanced upward at her with hesitation, but when she gave him a beam, he shuffled with the FENRIS mech into the back of the car. She followed him tout de suite, and the passenger door closed after her.

"Good to meet you, Alan. Is that your dog?" Jacob pressed while looking briefly into the rearview mirror.

"Yeah," the boy responded shyly and patted Angie on the face.

"I like it. What's the dog's name?"

"Angie."

"How long have you had her?"

"Is Dr. Cole doing well these days?" Miranda interjected.

"She's great, actually, and is really looking forward to meeting the two of you," Jacob replied with a genuine grin. "She's due pretty soon, in less than two months, actually."

"Due for what?" Alan inquired.

Miranda cringed and closed her eyes. "It means that she's going to have a child. She and Jacob are going to be parents." She glanced in the rearview mirror at the boy, who patted the seat next to him. The dog hopped up onto it, and Jacob lifted the car into the air to take off. Thankfully, he did not witness her body language. "Speaking of that, what will it be…the child, I mean?"

"It's going to be a girl, and we've already come up with a name," Jacob told her. "We settled on Amanda."

Miranda turned her head towards him and opened her eyes. "Are you disappointed, Jacob?"

He shook his head and exhaled through his teeth quickly. "Leave it to you to think that I'd automatically want a boy. Honestly, I didn't care, Miranda. Having a baby is a miracle in itself, and I'm glad that it's with Brynn. I love her, and it's not gonna be too long before I actually declare that in front of witnesses."

"So you'll be getting married soon, I see."

"Yeah. I haven't gotten her a ring or anything, but I did ask her the day we got back together. I should have done it beforehand, but well…guess I was too afraid to make a commitment."

Miranda was a bit surprised to hear all this coming from Jacob. This was not the same man that she had dated a few years ago. He had matured quite a bit; perhaps Shepard had been a good influence after all. She didn't know if Shepard had the word "marriage" on his mind, but most likely, it was there since he said that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. She gazed out the window at the clouds as they passed through them.

"So, Miranda, you think that Shepard's the one controlling the Reapers?" Jacob's question steered her back into the real world.

"Idle speculation is for idiots and news analysts."

"All you had to say was that you didn't want to talk about it." He glared impatiently at her. "I can take a hint."

"Good, because that's why we're here. I'd rather discuss it with Dr. Cole," she snapped back icily.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence, and when they arrived at their destination, Jacob offered to take Alan as well as Angie to New Bethlehem's baseball field, which was currently under construction.

Brynn gave Miranda a reserved greeting and let her inside of the pre-fab unit. "I must say that it's an honor to meet the woman responsible for putting back together the most famous human in the galaxy."

"He's the reason why I'm here, actually," Miranda announced. "Jacob took Alan to see the town's baseball stadium. Hope you don't mind."

"Not at all. It'll be some practice. Would you care to join me for some coffee or tea?" Her genuine smile made Miranda feel slightly uncomfortable, after all, she was the woman that fulfilled Jacob's every desire.

"I suppose some coffee would be all right, thank you."

The room was split in two; one half of the unit was the living room with a very large holo screen complete with a three sectioned couch, and the other was a kitchenette along with a dining room. A set of stairs not far from the left of the holo screen led to the next floor, which was likely where Jacob and Brynn slept.

Brynn made a gesture to the circular table and shuffled into the kitchen to start to prepare the coffee. Miranda set the briefcase onto the floor and sat down in a chair that faced the kitchen. "I appreciate your time, Dr. Cole, and thank you for your hospitality towards us all."

"It's no trouble, and please, call me Brynn. We're all friends here; there's no need to be so formal."

"My sister Oriana is meeting with a representative from ExoGeni, so please excuse her absence. I expect that running this colony would be a challenge; there doesn't seem to be much development here so far."

"The Collectors did hamper that last year by abducting the majority of the colonists," Brynn observed. "We've got about fifty people here in the community so far. Thankfully, the Reapers didn't destroy much of the planet. There are some edifices downtown that were crushed by a destroyer, but thankfully, those weren't extremely important buildings. The population that was in New Bethlehem before left to go serve with the Alliance as soon as the war started. That was due to Udina's influence, no doubt."

_This would be a good place for Alan to grow up. He wouldn't have much of a life with me; I don't want him to grow up alone and feel abandoned like I felt by my own father. I want Shepard and him, but I don't think that I could be a proper mother with all the projects I have going on right now._

_ I have enjoyed having Alan in my life, but…it'd be a disservice to him if I let him grow up without both the care of a mother and a father. Perhaps neither Jacob nor Brynn would object to having him as well as their child._ "Did Jacob tell you why I wanted to see you, Brynn?" Miranda asked.

"He said that you believe that Shepard is still alive and might possibly be controlling the Reapers. Or something else might be controlling him…that's what I gathered from Jacob's conversation with you."

"Yes. I'm not sure which one has more empirical evidence, but from the interactions that I've had with him, I'd be more inclined to believe in the latter of the two possibilities. In your studies with Reaper to Collector communication, you are the forefront expert, so I'd like your opinion on the matter."

Brynn turned the coffee machine on and joined Miranda at the table across from her. "I only worked on a small part of the Crucible, Miranda, and from what I can remember, nothing in the circuits I helped fabricate would allow for that possibility. In other words, I highly doubt that the Crucible would allow a human to be able to control the Reapers."

"What makes you say that?"

"I saved a few schematics that I worked on, but unfortunately because the project was so classified, I wasn't allowed to keep all of them. In fact, if I show any of these to you, it's possible that I could be declared a traitor by the Alliance."

"Don't worry about the Alliance's authority, Dr. Cole."

"Have you heard about what's been going on recently as they rebuild Arcturus Station? There's a growing witch hunt for _anyone_ who was formerly affiliated with Cerberus."

"I'm not worried about them and neither should you. In fact, there's something that I'd like to ask you as well as Jacob, and I don't expect an answer right now." Miranda activated her omni-tool and ran a search for the conversation she had with Ambassador Osoba. "I'm starting another organization like Cerberus, but I won't go as far as the Illusive Man did to get results. I've received a pardon in return for doing this service, and if you two join me, you won't have to worry about being accused of being a traitor…ever."

The coffee machine beeped twice, and Brynn arose. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"Jacob told you that I was the second in command to the Illusive Man, didn't he?"

Brynn nodded and poured the coffee into two mugs on the counter beside the coffee machine. "Yes, he did. There were several memos about your resignation that were sent out to many cells, if my memory properly serves me. I thought that the news was odd but honestly didn't give much thought to the matter because your name was never mentioned in them. The Illusive Man said that he needed to do some restructuring due to a position that had become vacant, and that there would be a lot of changes coming to Cerberus in the next few months. Little did I know how much would be happening," she said with a sigh. "If the news didn't specifically have to do with my project, I rarely paid much attention to it. I should have been more vigilant, but-"

"Don't blame yourself. You got out when the time was right."

"I can't help but wonder that if I'd only left earlier…" She brought the mugs back to the table. "Do you take sugar or cream?"

"Nothing for me, thank you."

Brynn slowly turned back around, brought a container back with her as well as a spoon, and set herself down carefully into the chair. "Might I ask how this idea came into fruition?"

"Suffice it to say that I've been given the green light and was asked to do so. I don't plan on leading the organization myself only because I'd rather be out in the field doing work, but I have an excellent candidate in mind to be in charge."

"I think it's only fair that I be allowed to ask who this person will be before I even consider joining this cause." The physicist shook some creamer into her coffee and stirred it.

Miranda took a sip from her coffee. It was too weak in her opinion, and so she sat the mug back down onto the table with no intention of finishing the drink. "The man I've selected for the job used to work for Cerberus and can be completely trusted. He refused to be implanted with Reaper technology and helped me find some leads to locate Sanctuary."

"So he was a fugitive as well?"

"Yes. He's so secretive, Dr. Cole, that I actually have no idea where he is at this moment. I promise you that he's a very conscientious and trustworthy man."

"I'd like to know his name." Brynn crossed her arms.

"I'll tell you what I know, which isn't much, but I've come to know him as Charon."

"You don't know his real name?"

Miranda shook her head 'no'. "Perhaps he will disclose it one day, but like you, he is also afraid for his situation, and rightly so. This could turn into something very nasty, perhaps something like what happened on Earth during the twentieth century in the United States. Many people's careers were ruined after they were accused of communism. Joining Hyrde will solve that conundrum, Dr. Cole."

"Will your goals be the same as Cerberus' were?"

"Yes. I haven't written a manifesto, but we will look out for humanity should the Alliance become corrupt and need some…refinement."

"Refinement?"

"Do you believe that they are blameless and innocent?"

"Of course not." Brynn frowned. "Any organization can fall into venality."

"Yes, they can, especially if they have political goals." Miranda crossed one leg over the other. "But that is my secondary motive for my visit, and I wouldn't expect an immediate answer from you or Jacob right away. This is an important decision not to be made lightly. Please consider it, that's all I'm asking of you."

"It'd be disrespectful of me not to do so, after all, you brought Commander Shepard back, who saved my life and to whom I'm exceptionally grateful." She uncrossed her arms and drank some more of the coffee. "If you'd like, this afternoon, I can show you some of those schematics of the Crucible."

"Thank you. If Shepard isn't controlling the Reapers, then I'd like to know who or what is," Miranda stated firmly. "Have you seen any of them around here on the colony?"

"No, but we do get the Alliance News Network as well as a few other sources of broadcast. The extranet is available to us now via omni-tool, but the public QEC is downtown. So if we needed to speak with one another, I'm afraid that it will be over an insecure connection. I've been sort of wondering myself as to why and how the Reapers suddenly turned non-hostile. Until Jacob spoke with you and told me about why you were coming, I'm afraid that I let myself become complacent about the ordeal. I was honestly just happy that everyone's hard work paid off."

"We do know that the Crucible was fired, but I have a hunch that Shepard wasn't the one who did it." She laughed contemptuously at herself. "There was a day when I'd have dismissed everything that I feel right now as being ludicrous."

"Science demands quantifiable proof. I understand exactly how you feel, Miranda," Brynn agreed and stirred her coffee again. "True love doesn't work that way, and as a mother to be, I'm certainly glad for that." She patted her enlarged stomach.

Miranda felt a surge of envy rip through her at that moment and remembered that perhaps her present condition was able to be corrected. Maybe she should one day explore trying to have a child naturally again, but that would have to wait until she found Shepard. No one else would ever measure up, and she'd be damned if she settled for second best.

"Was there…anyone on the project you worked with that might know how the Reapers would be under someone or something else's control?" she wondered.

Brynn leaned her fingers into her chin and tapped one against her lips as she pondered the question for a few seconds. "There was…wait a moment…yes. I recall meeting a young woman who came to the project _very_ late. She had auburn hair with chestnut eyes and kept mostly to herself. What was her name?"

"Did she work specifically with you?"

The physicist closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Miranda, please, give me a moment. The Crucible project was organized chaos, and I met a new person practically every two hours."

"Of course."

As Miranda waited, she shifted her gaze around the pre-fab unit. The floor was covered with a few tasteful but elegant rugs. One of them closely resembled a large rug that she and Jacob had bought on the Citadel years ago. It was a deep peacock blue with patterns of golden leaves; she had paid for half. _I always wondered if he had kept that. Perhaps it serves as a reminder for him about what we did for the Council. We bought it shortly afterward._

"Ann Bryson."

"Bryson, you say?" Miranda repeated.

"Yes, I'm sure that that's her name. I saw Admiral Hackett personally escort her into the room and shake her hand," Brynn replied. "She rarely spoke to any of us; she must have suffered some sort of tragedy recently."

"Why?"

"She just seemed so despondent, so distant….whenever someone else approached her with a question or to ask how she was."

"And why would you think that she has any sort of idea how the Reapers could be controlled?"

"I heard the words 'artifact', 'Reaper', 'control', and 'Leviathan' come into the same conversations that she had with Admiral Hackett. I remember the last word so distinctly because I never heard of it before. Come to think of it, he came to speak with her _very_ often." She drank some more of her coffee.

Miranda's eyebrows raised. "Leviathan, you say?"

"Yes, I did. A part of me was curious at the time, but well…I had my own work to do, as did she. It would have been improper of me to inquire about her project."

The outside door opened, and in came Alan with Jacob as well as Angie. He ran up to Miranda and threw himself about her waist. "Do you know what I got to do?" he demanded.

"No, I don't."

"I got to throw a baseball around with Mr. Taylor." Alan tore himself away from Miranda and pointed back to Jacob, who held up two gloves with a grin. "He called it catch. Ever play catch before, Ms. Lawson?"

"No."

"Wanna learn? It's easy."

Miranda made eye contact with both Jacob and Brynn then finally with him. She bit her lip; she didn't want to leave this conversation, but she knew that her time with Alan was short. Her father would _rarely_ give up time for her, if ever. She knew how it made her feel when she was a little girl, and she didn't want Alan to _ever_ feel that way.

"All right, but not for too long, okay?" She arose from her chair, took the gloves from Jacob as well as the baseball, and led Alan outside by the hand.

*A/N*-My thanks be to 80 Montana for being a very thorough beta reader. For those of you who have been patiently waiting for the bomb to drop, figuratively speaking, here it was. Is anybody thirsty now?


End file.
